INTERBALL AURORA

INTERBALL AURORA is an active satellite operated by Russia (CIS), launched on 1996-08-29 from PKMTR. With over 30 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 846 km and 19,125 km with an inclination of 62.7°. It travels at approximately 17,772 km/h (4.94 km/s), completing one full orbit every 5 hours 47 minutes — that’s roughly 4.15 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.5588 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Orbital Radar tracks INTERBALL AURORA in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

INTERBALL AURORA orbits at an average altitude of 9,986 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 INTERBALL AURORA’s average altitude, there are currently 2 active payloads and 4 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 62.7°, INTERBALL AURORA passes over latitudes between 62.7°N and 62.7°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 1,285 active satellites in total.