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A significant event related to the Kessler Syndrome occurred on August 9, 2024, when a Chinese Long March 6A rocket broke apart in low-Earth orbit, creating a cloud of hundreds of debris fragments. The US Space Command confirmed this breakup, and it has been tracked by multiple space debris-tracking organizations.
While this does not remove the debris of the now derelict rocket stage or satellite itself, it does substantially reduce the likelihood of the spacecraft destructing and creating many smaller pieces of space debris, a phenomenon that was common in many of the early generations of US and Soviet [74] spacecraft.
In rare cases, marine pollution could be caused by spillage of the highly toxic rocket propellant hydrazine. [12] Other forms of space debris removal are being considered and produced to slow the exponential growth of space debris orbiting Earth due to increased space exploration. [12] [15]
When traditional rockets separate they do so in the vacuum of space. But to be reusable, the first stage must be separated earlier, which risks disturbance from remaining atmosphere.
As fuel and oxidiser are burned in the rocket's engines, helium fills the resulting empty space in the tanks, maintaining the overall pressure inside. Because it is non-reactive, it can safely ...
The Highwater experiment sought to determine the effect of a large volume of water suddenly released into the ionosphere. [1] [2] [3] The project answered questions about the effect of the diffusion of propellants in the event that a rocket was destroyed at high altitude. [4] The first flight, SA-2, took place on April 25, 1962.
Upgrades to the latest Starship rocket include smaller flaps, redesigns to the propulsion system, a 25 per cent increase in propellant volume, and a complete overhaul of the vehicle’s avionics.
2020: The empty core stage of a Chinese Long March-5B rocket made an uncontrolled re-entry - the largest object to do so since the Soviet Union's 39-ton Salyut 7 space station in 1991 – over Africa and the Atlantic Ocean and a 12-meter-long pipe originating from the rocket crashed into the village of Mahounou in Côte d'Ivoire. [21] 2021: