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 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 868 km and 1,997 km with an inclination of 66.0°. It travels at approximately 25,729 km/h (7.15 km/s), completing one full orbit every 115 minutes — that’s roughly 12.58 orbits per day. 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 1,433 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 COSMOS 886 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 348 active payloads and 174 tracked debris or rocket body fragments. With an inclination of 66.0°, COSMOS 886 DEB passes over latitudes between 66.0°N and 66.0°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 1,286 active satellites in total, of which 313 share a similar altitude band with COSMOS 886 DEB.