ISIS 2 DEB

ISIS 2 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Canada, launched on 1971-04-01 from Vandenberg SFB, California. After more than 55 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 1,314 km and 1,389 km with an inclination of 88.2°. It travels at approximately 25,864 km/h (7.18 km/s), completing one full orbit every 113 minutes — that’s roughly 12.77 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, ISIS 2 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.

ISIS 2 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,352 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 ISIS 2 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 36 active payloads and 145 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 88.2°, ISIS 2 DEB passes over latitudes between 88.2°N and 88.2°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. Canada operates approximately 66 active satellites in total.