ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA)

ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA) is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to France, launched on 2006-05-27 from Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana on the Satmex 6 launch. With over 20 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 256 km and 3,507 km with an inclination of 6.8°. It travels at approximately 25,019 km/h (6.95 km/s), completing one full orbit every 2 hours 5 minutes — that’s roughly 11.57 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1970 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA) 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.

ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA) orbits at an average altitude of 1,882 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 ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA)’s average altitude, there are currently 6 active payloads and 29 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 6.8°, ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA) passes over latitudes between 6.8°N and 6.8°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. France operates approximately 124 active satellites in total.