Sakshi Tiwari
As China ramps up satellite launches in an effort to develop its own version of the Starlink satellite network, the United States is faced with a new challenge: piles of space debris that would likely be generated in the process of releasing these satellites and the opacity surrounding such space trash.
The commander of the U.S. Space Command, Gen. Stephen N. Whiting, said he hopes Beijing will alert Washington the next time it launches a rocket that leaves behind persistent space debris instead of forcing the United States to figure out the orbital mess on its own.
Speaking last week at a forum in Colorado, General Stephen Whiting pointed to two instances in the previous two years where Chinese satellite launches left large amounts of trash in orbit.
“I hope next time there’s a rocket like that that leaves a lot of debris, it’s not our sensors that are the first to detect that, but we’re getting communications that help us to understand that, just like we communicate with others,” the Space Command chief said at an event organized by Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies.
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