DELTA 1 DEB

DELTA 1 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1973-11-06 from Vandenberg SFB, California. After more than 53 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 1,423 km and 1,980 km with an inclination of 101.8°. It travels at approximately 25,297 km/h (7.03 km/s), completing one full orbit every 2 hours — that’s roughly 11.95 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, DELTA 1 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.

DELTA 1 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,702 km in the uppermost reaches of Low Earth Orbit. At this altitude, orbital decay is effectively zero without active deorbiting, and coverage footprints are significantly larger than lower LEO, though at the cost of higher latency. Within ±50 km of DELTA 1 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 16 active payloads and 56 tracked debris or rocket body fragments. This is a relatively sparse altitude band, containing less than 1% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 101.8°, DELTA 1 DEB passes over latitudes between 101.8°N and 101.8°S, providing near-global coverage including the polar regions. Polar and near-polar orbits are used for reconnaissance, weather monitoring and Earth-observation missions that need to image every part of the planet. United States operates approximately 12,258 active satellites in total.