SEA LAUNCH DEMO

SEA LAUNCH DEMO is an active satellite operated by Sea Launch, launched on 1999-03-28 from Sea Launch (ocean platform). With over 27 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 613 km and 36,088 km with an inclination of 1.6°. It travels at approximately 14,456 km/h (4.02 km/s), completing one full orbit every 10 hours 45 minutes — that’s roughly 2.23 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7175 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Orbital Radar tracks SEA LAUNCH DEMO in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

SEA LAUNCH DEMO orbits at an average altitude of 18,351 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 SEA LAUNCH DEMO’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 20 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 1.6°, SEA LAUNCH DEMO passes over latitudes between 1.6°N and 1.6°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones.