COSMOS 886 DEB

COSMOS 886 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 1976-12-27 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. After more than 50 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 743 km and 2,336 km with an inclination of 65.9°. It travels at approximately 25,555 km/h (7.10 km/s), completing one full orbit every 117 minutes — that’s roughly 12.32 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1007 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, COSMOS 886 DEB 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.

COSMOS 886 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,540 km in Medium Earth Orbit, the region between LEO and GEO (2,000–35,786 km). MEO’s higher altitude gives each satellite a much larger ground footprint than LEO, meaning fewer spacecraft are needed for global coverage — but signal latency is higher and radiation from the Van Allen belts is a significant design constraint. Within ±50 km of COSMOS 886 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 119 active payloads and 260 tracked debris or rocket body fragments. With an inclination of 65.9°, COSMOS 886 DEB passes over latitudes between 65.9°N and 65.9°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,285 active satellites in total, of which 107 share a similar altitude band with COSMOS 886 DEB.