It is possible that a Chinese military satellite collided with a fragment of a Russian spy satellite.
It is possible that the Chinese military satellite 'Yunhai 1-02', which the US Space Force reported in March 2021 as having confirmed damage, collided with space debris released from a Russian spy satellite rocket.
Space junk collision: Chinese satellite got whacked by hunk of Russian rocket in March | Space
https://www.space.com/space-junk-collision-chinese-satellite-yunhai-1-02
In March 2021, the U.S. Space Force's 18th Space Control Corps reported that 'the damage to the Chinese military satellite'Yunhai 1-02'launched in September 2019 was confirmed on March 18, 2021.' .. According to the report at that time, the detailed cause was 'continuously being analyzed', and it was speculated that the propulsion system might have exploded or collided with something.
# 18SPCS has confirmed the breakup of YUNHAI 1-02 (# 44547, 2019-063A), which occurred on March 18, 2021, at 0741 UTC. Tracking 21 associated pieces – analysis is ongoing. #Spaceflightsafety #spacedebris @spacetrackorg
— 18 SPCS (@ 18SPCS) March 22, 2021
Regarding the damage to Yunhai 1-02, the public catalog 'Space-Track.org ' about the world's largest space debris operated in collaboration with the US Space Force and private organizations has updated the information and was released by '1996-051Q'. 'Object 48078' collided with Yunhai 1-02 'was added. According to Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical Center, who discovered this information, 'the explanation that an object collided with a satellite is so rare that even I have never seen it.'
Space-Track catalog updated today with a note for object 48078, 1996-051Q: 'Collided with satellite'.
— Jonathan McDowell (@ planet4589) August 15, 2021
This is a new kind of comment entry --haven't seen such a comment for any other satellites before. Let's look a bit closer:
McDowell conducted further follow-up on the clash. The object 48078, which was said to have collided with Yunhai 1-02, was found to be space debris of about 10 cm to 50 cm released from the Zenit-2 rocket that launched the Russian spy satellite 'Tselina-2' in September 1996.
When I referred to the tracking data for object 48078, the data for object 48078 had an error as of March 18, 2021 at 3:41. This March 18, 2021 is the date when Yunhai 1-02 was confirmed to be damaged, and as of 3:41 on that day, Yunhai 1-02 and Object 48078 were 'within a relative distance of 1 km'. Since there is data that 'exists', it is highly probable that these two objects collided.
Since the signal from Yunhai 1-02 was detected as of August 15, 2021, it seems that Yunhai 1-02 was not completely destroyed by the collision with object 48078. However, McDowell commented, 'I don't know if the feature is alive.'
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in Science, Posted by darkhorse_log