COSMOS 249 DEB

COSMOS 249 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 1968-10-20 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. After more than 58 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 745 km and 1,694 km with an inclination of 62.2°. It travels at approximately 26,088 km/h (7.25 km/s), completing one full orbit every 110 minutes — that’s roughly 13.11 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, COSMOS 249 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 249 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,220 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 249 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 671 active payloads and 240 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0012, ONEWEB-0010, ONEWEB-0008. With an inclination of 62.2°, COSMOS 249 DEB passes over latitudes between 62.2°N and 62.2°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 8 share a similar altitude band with COSMOS 249 DEB.