DEBRIS
FENGYUN 1C DEB
Anti-Satellite Test Debris · China
Right now
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Most of the debris from China's 2007 anti-satellite test, which destroyed the Fengyun-1C weather satellite 537 miles up, was knocked forward or backward along the satellite's path. This piece was knocked sideways. Its orbit is tilted about 0.8° more steeply than the satellite's, which sounds small, but at orbital speed it takes a sideways push of roughly 230 mph to make that change. It now orbits between about 490 and 580 miles up, close to where the satellite was. Because of that tilt it has steadily drifted apart from the rest of the cloud, crossing it rather than flying alongside it.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Low Earth Orbitcan appear as a fast-moving star at dawn or dusk
- Altitude
- 493–582 mi (794–937 km)
- Inclination
- 99.7°
- One orbit
- 102.1 minutes14.1 orbits a day
- NORAD ID
- 33718
- Int’l designator
- 1999-025DHF
- Launched
- 1999
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 8 Nov 2026.
More debris
- HULIANWANG JISHU SHIYAN 10ACataloged Orbital Debris Fragment
- 2022-023ECataloged Orbital Debris Fragment
- DUPLEXISS-Released Russian Experiment Hardware
- FENGYUN 1C DEBAnti-Satellite Test Debris
- FENGYUN 1C DEBAnti-Satellite Test Debris