View of LEO Satellites (green) and Debris Ring (red) from Chinese ASAT Test. (Graphic courtesy of Dr. T.S. Kelso and the Celestrak website, http://www.celestrak.com/events/asat.asp)
And the hits, uh I mean the debris, just keeps on coming. More debris has been cataloged by U.S. Space Command associated with the Chinese ASAT test conducted last month. The debris is from the target of the test - the Fengyun 1C polar orbiting weather satellite.
Here is a catalog of the known objects as of 2 Feb 2007 at 1200 UTC:
International Designator / SSC#
1999-025E / 29716 to 1999-025AM / 29747 [Original pieces cataloged]
1999-025AN / 29748 to 1999-025LZ /29999 [2nd set of debris cataloged, released 1/28/2007]
1999-025MA / 30001 to 1999-025WS / 30233 [2nd set of debris cataloged, released 1/28/2007]
1999-025WT / 30234 to 1999-025ZZ / 30312 [3rd set of debris cataloged, released 2/2/2007]
The 1999-025 ASAT test still ranks as the second highest on orbit debris event in space history as the table below shows.
Rank / SSN / Int Designator / Pieces
4 / 27721 / 1965-082UT / 474
3 / 27596 / 1986-019VN / 493
2 / 30312 / 1999-025ZZ / 594
1 / 29036 / 1994-029AET / 714
