WASHINGTON ― China has been abandoning used launcher rocket stages in low Earth orbit (LEO) at an ever-increasing pace, putting both military and commercial satellites in that crowded orbital regime at greater risk of serious debris-creating collisions, according to a new report.
Used rocket bodies are among the most dangerous kinds of space junk because they carry residual amounts of fuel that often causes them to explode, thus creating even more on-orbit debris.
The analysis from space monitoring firm LeoLabs, provided to Breaking Defense, found that from January 2021 to January 2025 China has abandoned 51 spent rocket bodies in LEO above 650 kilometers (about 404 miles) in altitude, more than doubling the number for the previous five years to bring the total to 96.
During that period, Beijing accounted for 86 percent of the global number of rocket bodies left in LEO, nearly seven times more than the rest of the world combined, it adds. By contrast, the US left four, and Russia, only one.
Even more importantly for calculations of potential debris creation, the analysis shows that the “amount of R/B mass abandoned above 650 km from China has more than tripled,” rising from 98,000 kilograms to 305,000 kilograms. This accounts for “98 [percent] of the global increase in abandoned R/B mass is from China meaning China has left over 40x the amount of abandoned R/B mass in long-lived orbits in LEO than rest of the world combined.”
