TITAN 3C TRANSTAGE DEB

TITAN 3C TRANSTAGE DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1965-12-21 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the LES 4 launch. After more than 61 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 484 km and 26,224 km with an inclination of 26.5°. It travels at approximately 16,183 km/h (4.50 km/s), completing one full orbit every 7 hours 40 minutes — that’s roughly 3.13 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.6525 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, TITAN 3C TRANSTAGE 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.

TITAN 3C TRANSTAGE DEB orbits at an average altitude of 13,354 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 TITAN 3C TRANSTAGE DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 4 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 26.5°, TITAN 3C TRANSTAGE DEB passes over latitudes between 26.5°N and 26.5°S, covering the tropical and temperate zones where most of the world’s population resides. Low-to-mid inclination orbits are efficient to reach from equatorial and mid-latitude launch sites. United States operates approximately 12,358 active satellites in total.