The clamour around the world regarding the proliferation of space junk is falling on deaf ears in China. In particular, the Chinese are leaving rocket bodies in high LEO, and the rate of these placements is increasing. Space Domain expert Jim Shell explained on LinkedIn that these high Low Earth Orbits are at a minimum perigee height of 600 km and an orbit height of less than 2000 km.
While the U.S. and Soviet Union had left more rocket bodies there than the Chinese have to date, there are some very big differences. First, the non-Chinese bodies are old – the practice of leaving them in orbit died decades ago. Second, they are smaller. For example, the total mass of the Chinese rocket debris in such orbits is almost five times that of the U.S., at 252 metric tons versus 57 metric tons.
A growing, but underreported space debris problem
Jim Shell notes that the problem is not a new one. He first brought it to public attention in April 2025, with a series of posts on X and on LinkedIn showing that launches for building the Thousand Sails and Hulianwang W. Digui telecommunications constellations are also populating LEO with the rocket stages that transported the satellites. If left untouched, the se boosters could stay in orbit for over 100 years.
These megaconstellations will include over 20,000 satellites in LEO. The Chinese are not alone in launching megaconstellations, and SpaceX already has over 10,000 active Starlink satellites in orbit, according to satellitemap.space. The difference is that SpaceX does not park the rockets in orbit, especially in a high orbit that would have the rocket descending through the highly populated orbits below in order to remove them. Shell points out in an August 2025 substack post that the upper stages from the Falcon 9 that haul Starlink satellites up to 350km deorbit after delivery and are usually not up long enough to be catalogued.
The reasons for China’s behaviour regarding these launches – and there are expected to be over 1,000 such launches for these megaconstellations – is not clear. China has not made any statements on the matter. However, the issue is a matter of national security space interests, for the U.S., as Shell notes, and the rest of the world.
