COSMOS 1191 DEB

COSMOS 1191 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 1980-07-02 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia on the Oko launch. With over 46 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) at altitudes between 580 km and 40,015 km with an inclination of 62.3°. It travels at approximately 13,918 km/h (3.87 km/s), completing one full orbit every 12 hours 3 minutes — that’s roughly 1.99 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7394 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, COSMOS 1191 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.

COSMOS 1191 DEB follows a Highly Elliptical Orbit, sweeping between 580 km (perigee) and 40,015 km (apogee). It spends most of its 12 hours 3 minutes orbital period near apogee, effectively loitering over a region of interest before rapidly sweeping through perigee — a profile used for high-latitude communications (Molniya orbits), early-warning systems and magnetospheric science. Within ±50 km of COSMOS 1191 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 3 active payloads and 15 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 62.3°, COSMOS 1191 DEB passes over latitudes between 62.3°N and 62.3°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,569 active satellites in total, of which 3 share a similar altitude band with COSMOS 1191 DEB.