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, Kourou on the CAT launch. With over 47 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 268 km and 2,135 km with an inclination of 17.9°. It travels at approximately 26,119 km/h (7.26 km/s), completing one full orbit every 109 minutes — that’s roughly 13.16 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1233 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 thousands of 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 1,202 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 ARIANE 1 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 735 active payloads and 203 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0012, ONEWEB-0010, ONEWEB-0008. 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 115 active satellites in total.