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 266 km and 1,963 km with an inclination of 17.9°. It travels at approximately 26,270 km/h (7.30 km/s), completing one full orbit every 108 minutes — that’s roughly 13.39 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1134 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 1,115 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 410 active payloads and 476 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0041, ONEWEB-0250. 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 124 active satellites in total, of which 2 share a similar altitude band with ARIANE 1 DEB.