ARIANE 1 DEB

ARIANE 1 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to France, launched on 1979-12-24 from Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana on the CAT launch. With over 47 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 265 km and 1,871 km with an inclination of 17.9°. It travels at approximately 26,352 km/h (7.32 km/s), completing one full orbit every 107 minutes — that’s roughly 13.51 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1079 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~500–1,000 years. As orbital debris, ARIANE 1 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.

ARIANE 1 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,068 km in the upper LEO band, where atmospheric drag is negligible and objects can persist for centuries to millennia. This altitude is used by broadband constellations like OneWeb and by scientific missions requiring stable orbits far from the densest debris bands. Within ±50 km of ARIANE 1 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 343 active payloads and 583 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0041. With an inclination of 17.9°, ARIANE 1 DEB passes over latitudes between 17.9°N and 17.9°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. France operates approximately 125 active satellites in total, of which 2 share a similar altitude band with ARIANE 1 DEB.