TITAN 34D TRANSTAGE DEB

TITAN 34D TRANSTAGE DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1988-09-02 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the VORTEX 5 launch. With over 38 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 867 km and 39,476 km with an inclination of 27.3°. It travels at approximately 13,951 km/h (3.88 km/s), completing one full orbit every 11 hours 58 minutes — that’s roughly 2.01 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7273 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, TITAN 34D TRANSTAGE 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.

TITAN 34D TRANSTAGE DEB orbits at an average altitude of 20,172 km in Medium Earth Orbit, the region between LEO and GEO (2,000–35,786 km). MEO’s higher altitude gives each satellite a much larger ground footprint than LEO, meaning fewer spacecraft are needed for global coverage — but signal latency is higher and radiation from the Van Allen belts is a significant design constraint. Within ±50 km of TITAN 34D TRANSTAGE DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 102 active payloads and 14 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include GPS BIIR-5 (PRN 22), GPS BIIR-8 (PRN 16), GPS BIIR-11 (PRN 19). With an inclination of 27.3°, TITAN 34D TRANSTAGE DEB passes over latitudes between 27.3°N and 27.3°S, covering the tropical and temperate zones where most of the world’s population resides. Low-to-mid inclination orbits are efficient to reach from equatorial and mid-latitude launch sites. United States operates approximately 12,358 active satellites in total, of which 43 share a similar altitude band with TITAN 34D TRANSTAGE DEB.