page_title: Space debris
section_title: Boosters
hierarchical_section_title: Space debris / Sources / Boosters
caption_attribution_description: English: The spent Delta-K second stage of a Delta II rocket photographed in orbit by the XSS-10 satellite.
context_page_description: Space debris is a term for defunct human-made objects in space—principally in Earth orbit—which no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecraft—nonfunctional spacecraft and abandoned launch vehicle stages—mission-related debris, and particularly numerous in Earth orbit, fragmentation debris from the breakup of derelict rocket bodies and spacecraft. In addition to derelict human-built objects left in orbit, other examples of space debris include fragments from their disintegration, erosion and collisions, or even paint flecks, solidified liquids expelled from spacecraft, and unburned particles from solid rocket motors. Space debris represents a risk to spacecraft.
  Space debris is typically a negative externality—it creates an external cost on others from the initial action to launch or use a spacecraft in near-Earth orbit—a cost that is typically not taken into account nor fully accounted for in the cost by the launcher or payload owner.
  Several spacecraft, both manned and unmanned, have been damaged or destroyed by space debris. The measurement, mitigation, and potential removal of debris are conducted by some participants in the space industry.
context_section_description: In characterizing the problem of space debris, it was learned that much debris was due to rocket upper stages (e.g. the Inertial Upper Stage) which end up in orbit, and break up due to decomposition of unvented unburned fuel. However, a major known impact event involved an (intact) Ariane booster. Although NASA and the United States Air Force now require upper-stage passivation, other launchers do not.
  Lower stages, like the Space Shuttle's solid rocket boosters or Apollo program's Saturn IB launch vehicles, do not reach orbit.
  On 11 March 2000 a Chinese Long March 4 CBERS-1 upper stage exploded in orbit, creating a debris cloud.
  A Russian Briz-M booster stage exploded in orbit over South Australia on 19 February 2007. Launched on 28 February 2006 carrying an Arabsat-4A communications satellite, it malfunctioned before it could use up its propellant. Although the explosion was captured on film by astronomers, due to the orbit path the debris cloud has been difficult to measure with radar. By 21 February 2007, over 1,000 fragments were identified. A 14 February 2007 breakup was recorded by Celestrak. Eight breakups occurred in 2006, the most since 1993. Another Briz-M broke up on 16 October 2012 after a failed 6 August Proton-M launch. The amount and size of the debris was unknown. A Long March 7 rocket booster created a fireball visible from portions of Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho and California on the evening of 27 July 2016; its disintegration was widely reported on social media. In 2018-2019, three different Atlas V Centaur second stages have broken up.
caption: Spent upper stage of a Delta II rocket, photographed by the XSS 10 satellite
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