China ASAT Test (Fengyun-1C)

On 11 January 2007, China conducted a direct-ascent anti-satellite test against its defunct Fengyun-1C weather satellite at roughly 865 km altitude. The hypervelocity impact shattered the satellite into more than 3,500 trackable fragments and an estimated 150,000 smaller pieces — the single largest debris-generating event ever recorded. Because the collision occurred in a high, slow-decaying orbit, a large share of the fragments remain in space nearly two decades later and will persist for centuries.