ATLAS CENTAUR DEB

ATLAS CENTAUR DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1978-06-29 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the Comstar D-3 launch. With over 48 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 870 km and 35,565 km with an inclination of 22.0°. It travels at approximately 14,495 km/h (4.03 km/s), completing one full orbit every 10 hours 40 minutes — that’s roughly 2.25 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7055 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, ATLAS CENTAUR 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.

ATLAS CENTAUR DEB orbits at an average altitude of 18,218 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 ATLAS CENTAUR DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 35 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 22.0°, ATLAS CENTAUR DEB passes over latitudes between 22.0°N and 22.0°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.