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Chinese megaconstellation launch creates field of space debris (spacenews.com)

submitted 2 months ago by llamacoffee@lemmy.world to c/spaceflight@sh.itjust.works

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[–] MartianSands@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I think you misunderstood. They're pointing out that the Falcon 9's upper stage is always expended

[–] dgriffith@aussie.zone 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

But the Falcon 9 second stage is sent on a controlled re-entry after satellite deployment, usually aiming for point Nemo.

There's only been one second stage failure in 270+ launches and that re-entered in a unguided manner (I'm actually not sure where it re-entered), but it still didn't leave any major debris in orbit.

And they changed their deployment hardware - those long rods that the sats are contained by - to keep it attached to the second stage, so it all deorbits together.