ANKARA

China's latest Long March rocket has been broken into 300 pieces, with debris traceable in low-Earth orbit, the United States Space Command (USSPACECOM) claimed on Thursday.

The US Space Command said in a brief statement on X that it can confirm the breakup of a Chinese Long March 6A rocket launched on Aug. 6, resulting in over 300 pieces of trackable debris in low-Earth orbit.

"USSPACECOM has observed no immediate threats and continues to conduct routine conjunction assessments to support the safety and sustainability of the space domain," it said.

On Tuesday, China announced that it had "successfully" launched 18 Qianfan satellites into preset orbits using a Long March-6 carrier rocket, which will be used to establish the nation's "own version of Starlink."

The Qianfan mega constellation project, or G60, was launched in 2023, aiming to provide more extensive and high-quality communication services for domestic users.

It is expected to establish a network of over 15,000 low-Earth orbit (LEO) wide-screen multimedia satellites in the long run.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid