The Peter Zeihan Podcast Series Kessler Syndrome and the Future of Space || Peter Zeihan
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Dec 4, 2025 Recent debris strikes at China's Tiangong station highlight the dangers of low Earth orbit. The area is cluttered with Cold War remnants and faces growing congestion from Starlink's expanding satellite fleet. China's past anti-satellite tests have contributed to a mounting debris problem. Kessler Syndrome poses a risk of cascading collisions, threatening to make this region unusable. Geopolitical tensions between Russia and China add another layer of complexity to the already precarious situation in space.
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Tiangong Hit By Old Debris
- Peter Zeihan describes the Chinese Tiangong space station being struck by debris in low Earth orbit at ~350 km.
- He explains that Cold War-era debris and a 2007 Chinese anti-satellite test still litter that busy orbital band.
Why The 350km Band Is So Crowded
- The ~350 km band is extremely congested with thousands of Starlink and legacy satellites plus Cold War debris.
- China places its station low because its rockets lack the throw weight to reach higher orbits.
2007 Chinese ASAT Test Still Haunts LEO
- Zeihan recounts China's 2007 anti-satellite test that produced ~15,000 debris pieces and still intersects 350 km.
- He notes about 2,000 of those fragments remain and regularly pass through that orbital band.