{"id":591381,"date":"2026-09-05T22:44:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T22:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/591381\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T22:44:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T22:44:24","slug":"chinese-reconnaissance-satellite-breaks-up-in-rare-retrograde-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/591381\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese reconnaissance satellite breaks up in rare retrograde orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">HELSINKI \u2014 A Chinese satellite launched into an unusual orbit early this year has suffered an apparent fragmentation event, generating a field of debris.<\/p>\n<p>To continue reading this article:<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:18px\">Register now to read<br \/>3 free articles this month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:14px\">You\u2019ll also receive our weekly Editor\u2019s Choice, SpaceNews This Week and Opinions newsletters. Opt-out at any time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:16px\"><a href=\"#signin_modal\">Sign in to an existing account<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/author\/andrew-jones\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"120\" height=\"120\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788648264_641_Andrew-jones-headshot-150x150.jpeg\" class=\"avatar avatar-120 photo wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAndrew Jones writes about China&#8217;s space industry, including civilian programs, space science and exploration, policy, and commercial developments for SpaceNews, and writes the China Report newsletter. He has additional bylines in Scientific American,&#8230;\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/author\/andrew-jones\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Andrew Jones\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HELSINKI \u2014 A Chinese satellite launched into an unusual orbit early this year has suffered an apparent fragmentation&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[607,42333,42599,111,139,69,147,2303,392,1023,82364],"class_list":["post-591381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-china","tag-debris","tag-long-march-6a","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-sn","tag-space","tag-space-debris","tag-yaogan-satellites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591381","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=591381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}