By: Business Insider
August 18, 2021
A Chinese satellite mysteriously broke apart in March, scattering into dozens of pieces. Now, a Harvard astronomer has discovered what likely happened: It seems to have collided with a chunk of a Russian rocket.
“This looks to be the first major confirmed orbital collision in a decade,” Jonathan McDowell, who spotted the probable crash in a data log from the US Space Force, said on Twitter.
Space Force sensors detected new debris from the breakup of the Chinese satellite, called Yunhai 1-02, in mid-March. Yunhai 1-02 launched in 2019, so it was relatively young and should have been in good enough shape to not fall apart on its own. No verdict about the cause was ever announced.