SCOUT B DEB

SCOUT B DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1966-06-10 from Wallops Flight Facility / MARS, United States on the OV3-4 PHASR launch. After more than 60 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 582 km and 4,208 km with an inclination of 40.6°. It travels at approximately 24,276 km/h (6.74 km/s), completing one full orbit every 2 hours 16 minutes — that’s roughly 10.56 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.2068 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, SCOUT B 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.

SCOUT B DEB orbits at an average altitude of 2,395 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 SCOUT B DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 10 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 40.6°, SCOUT B DEB passes over latitudes between 40.6°N and 40.6°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 13,196 active satellites in total.