SL-14 DEB

SL-14 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 1978-10-26 from PKMTR on the Meteor-2 GVM launch. With over 48 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 1,198 km and 1,675 km with an inclination of 82.7°. It travels at approximately 25,723 km/h (7.15 km/s), completing one full orbit every 115 minutes — that’s roughly 12.57 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, SL-14 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.

SL-14 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,437 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 SL-14 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 366 active payloads and 180 tracked debris or rocket body fragments. With an inclination of 82.7°, SL-14 DEB passes over latitudes between 82.7°N and 82.7°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. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,285 active satellites in total, of which 331 share a similar altitude band with SL-14 DEB.