CZ-4 DEB

CZ-4 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to China, launched on 1999-10-14 from Taiyuan, China on the ZY-1/CBERS 1 launch. With over 27 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 732 km and 1,806 km with an inclination of 99.5°. It travels at approximately 26,003 km/h (7.22 km/s), completing one full orbit every 111 minutes — that’s roughly 12.98 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, CZ-4 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.

CZ-4 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,269 km in the uppermost reaches of Low Earth Orbit. At this altitude, orbital decay is effectively zero without active deorbiting, and coverage footprints are significantly larger than lower LEO, though at the cost of higher latency. Within ±50 km of CZ-4 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 66 active payloads and 280 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0013, ONEWEB-0017, ONEWEB-0020. This is a relatively sparse altitude band, containing less than 1% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 99.5°, CZ-4 DEB passes over latitudes between 99.5°N and 99.5°S, providing near-global coverage including the polar regions. Polar and near-polar orbits are used for reconnaissance, weather monitoring and Earth-observation missions that need to image every part of the planet. China operates approximately 1,218 active satellites in total.