Chinese ASAT Test – Update

From the Patriot Post:

Now challenging U.S. space supremacy may be easier than previously believed. That’s because one result of China’s test is the introduction of a semi-permanent, global “frag cloud” in Earth’s lower orbit. Many experts believe one motivation behind the Chinese test was not only to hit the satellite target, but to study the debris that it left behind. China’s newly minted “frag cloud” equates to space-borne anti-aircraft rounds—with each fragment traveling on the order of 10 miles per second. Already, the International Space Station has had to maneuver to avoid collision and, next time, intelligence or military communications satellites would constitute even easier targets. Now the frag pattern is spreading from its original single polar orbit into a shell, more-or-less uniformly distributed about the Earth at roughly the impact altitude, potentially doubling the amount of trackable space trash previously orbiting the planet.