DELTA 1 DEB (YO)

DELTA 1 DEB (YO) is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1976-07-08 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the Palapa A1 launch. After more than 50 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 429 km and 11,103 km with an inclination of 24.5°. It travels at approximately 20,631 km/h (5.73 km/s), completing one full orbit every 3 hours 42 minutes — that’s roughly 6.49 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.4397 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, DELTA 1 DEB (YO) 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.

DELTA 1 DEB (YO) orbits at an average altitude of 5,766 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 DELTA 1 DEB (YO)’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 8 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 24.5°, DELTA 1 DEB (YO) passes over latitudes between 24.5°N and 24.5°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.