Chinese rocket breaks apart in low-Earth orbit, creating a cloud of space debris

CNN.com quoted John Crassidis in a story about a Chinese rocket that broke apart in low-Earth orbit, creating a cloud of space debris. Because the Chinese satellites were delivered into orbit around Earth’s poles, rather than an equatorial orbit, they will “pack a real punch with other objects not in polar orbit” like two cars colliding in an intersection, Crassidis said. Everything in low-Earth orbit travels at 17,500 miles per hour, he added. “The worst-case scenario is when any part of the debris field collides with something that is moving around the equator,” he said. “That’s a T-bone intersection case. Imagine two cars going at 17,000 MPH and crashing at a T-bone intersection. Obviously, that’s bad. Overall any object in its path will still be a bad situation.”