OPS 4682 DEB

OPS 4682 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1965-04-03 from Vandenberg SFB, California. After more than 61 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 1,244 km and 1,297 km with an inclination of 90.2°. It travels at approximately 26,001 km/h (7.22 km/s), completing one full orbit every 111 minutes — that’s roughly 12.98 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, OPS 4682 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.

OPS 4682 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,271 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 OPS 4682 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 66 active payloads and 274 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0013, ONEWEB-0017, ONEWEB-0020. This is a relatively sparse altitude band, containing less than 1% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 90.2°, OPS 4682 DEB passes over latitudes between 90.2°N and 90.2°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 12,339 active satellites in total, of which 2 share a similar altitude band with OPS 4682 DEB.