THOR ABLE DEB (YO)

THOR ABLE DEB (YO) is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1960-04-01 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, United States. After more than 66 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 553 km and 590 km with an inclination of 48.2°. It travels at approximately 27,278 km/h (7.58 km/s), completing one full orbit every 96 minutes — that’s roughly 14.99 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~3–10 years. As orbital debris, THOR ABLE DEB (YO) poses a potential collision risk to operational satellites in nearby orbits and is continuously monitored by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network and other tracking systems.

THOR ABLE DEB (YO) orbits at an average altitude of 572 km in the core of Low Earth Orbit, the most heavily utilised altitude band. The balance of moderate drag (limiting debris accumulation) and short signal path (enabling low-latency links and high-resolution imaging) makes this regime the default for most commercial and government missions. Within ±50 km of THOR ABLE DEB (YO)’s average altitude, there are currently 1,441 active payloads and 532 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0050, STARLINK-3005, STARLINK-3090. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 7.7% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 48.2°, THOR ABLE DEB (YO) passes over latitudes between 48.2°N and 48.2°S, covering the tropical and temperate zones where most of the world’s population resides. Low-to-mid inclination orbits are efficient to reach from equatorial and mid-latitude launch sites. United States operates approximately 13,195 active satellites in total, of which 860 share a similar altitude band with THOR ABLE DEB (YO).