ARIANE 44L+3 DEB (SPELDA

ARIANE 44L+3 DEB (SPELDA is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to France, launched on 1996-05-16 from Guiana Space Centre, Kourou on the Palapa C2 launch. With over 30 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 372 km and 25,897 km with an inclination of 3.9°. It travels at approximately 16,274 km/h (4.52 km/s), completing one full orbit every 7 hours 32 minutes — that’s roughly 3.19 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.6543 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, ARIANE 44L+3 DEB (SPELDA 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.

ARIANE 44L+3 DEB (SPELDA orbits at an average altitude of 13,135 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 ARIANE 44L+3 DEB (SPELDA’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 5 tracked debris or rocket body fragments. This is a relatively sparse altitude band, containing less than 1% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 3.9°, ARIANE 44L+3 DEB (SPELDA passes over latitudes between 3.9°N and 3.9°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. France operates approximately 115 active satellites in total.