{"id":586981,"date":"2026-09-01T14:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T14:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586981\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T14:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T14:46:11","slug":"starship-could-create-more-debris-than-an-anti-satellite-test-if-it-explodes-in-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586981\/","title":{"rendered":"Starship could create more debris than an anti-satellite test if it explodes in orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Starship<\/a>, the world\u2019s largest and most powerful rocket, gears up for an attempt to finally reach Earth\u2019s orbit, experts say the risk of an in-flight catastrophe \u2013 and a cloud of debris \u2013 \u201cneeds to be of concern\u201d.Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX<\/a> is expected to launch the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster for the launch system\u2019s 14th test flight and first orbital test flight later this month.<\/p>\n

According to one aerospace expert, if the Starship\u2019s upper stage explodes in orbit it could produce debris on a scale larger than previous in-orbit incidents, including an anti-satellite missile test.<\/p>\n

During that test, in November 2021, Russia intentionally blew up<\/a> a defunct Soviet intelligence satellite called Cosmos-1408.Moriba Jah, a professor of aerospace engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, said the Russian test had detrimental consequences for the operation of SpaceX\u2019s Starlink<\/a> satellite constellation.<\/p>\n

He said if Starship were to explode in orbit, it could create a lot of debris that could become hazards to other objects as well as humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf something like that happened in low-Earth orbit, it would be like the Russian anti-satellite test, but probably a few scales larger in terms of the amount of debris it would generate,\u201d Jah said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Starship, the world\u2019s largest and most powerful rocket, gears up for an attempt to finally reach Earth\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[22034,607,65257,3146,516,17614,66120,43590,117767,111,139,69,8105,147,1503,1504,5147,3040,14029],"class_list":["post-586981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-artemis-programme","tag-china","tag-cosmos","tag-earth","tag-elon-musk","tag-european-space-agency","tag-faa","tag-international-telecommunication-union","tag-kessler-syndrome","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-russia","tag-science","tag-spacex","tag-starlink","tag-starship","tag-us","tag-virginia-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}