A Chinese rocket that exploded in space this week created more than 700 pieces of debris, putting more than 1 satellites and other objects in Earth's orbit at risk of dangerous collisions, analysts said.

China's state-owned company Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST) launched 18 internet satellites into orbit on Tuesday, the first part of a communications network that will compete with SpaceX's Starlink.

The upper part of the rocket, which put the satellites into orbit, appears to have exploded shortly after the payload was released, creating debris.

US space tracking companies estimate there are at least 700 pieces. The company LeoLabs announced on Friday that the number of pieces of debris exceeded 900, making this event one of the largest ever recorded.

The debris cloud, created at an altitude of about 800 kilometers, will persist for several years, some analysts said. It is not clear whether the final breakup was caused by a collision with another object or by the explosion of unused rocket fuel.

More than 1.100 satellites and other objects in space are at risk of collision with Chinese debris, said Audrey Schaffer, vice president of strategy at space tracking company Slingshot Aerospace.

"What we're seeing now is that there are more than 1.100 close encounters predicted less than 5 km away over the next three days," Schaffer said.

A similar thing happened in 2022 with the Chinese Long March 6A missile. Hundreds of pieces of debris were then created, for which Western countries criticized China.

"Honestly, it's disappointing that the rocket had the same problem again. Events like this, which generate debris and are potentially avoidable, should not happen again," Schaffer said.