Ground stations are currently tracking sixteen fragments associated with the event, which occurred on April 15
An Earth-orbiting object cataloged as #32398 broke up on April 15, the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron tweeted on Tuesday . Sixteen pieces of space debris associated with the event are currently being tracked, the squadron added.
Those GLONASS spacecraft lifted off atop a Russian Proton rocket, the upper stage of which had two small ullage motors, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, who’s based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Ullage motors accelerate their parent rocket stages slightly, to ensure that the boosters’ fuel is positioned in the tanks properly for engine restarts in orbit, McDowell explained in a series of tweets on Tuesday.
“The SOZ motors don’t use up all their propellant when they fire. And they have an unfortunate tendency to go bang years or decades later, leaving a bunch of debris in highly elliptical orbit. At least 54 SOZ motors have now exploded,” McDowell tweeted.
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