ATLAS F DEB

ATLAS F DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1978-05-13 from Vandenberg SFB, California on the Navstar GPS SVN 2 launch. With over 48 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 501 km and 1,950 km with an inclination of 63.6°. It travels at approximately 26,077 km/h (7.24 km/s), completing one full orbit every 110 minutes — that’s roughly 13.10 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, ATLAS F 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.

ATLAS F DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,226 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 ATLAS F DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 666 active payloads and 301 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0012, ONEWEB-0010, ONEWEB-0008. With an inclination of 63.6°, ATLAS F DEB passes over latitudes between 63.6°N and 63.6°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. United States operates approximately 12,672 active satellites in total, of which 2 share a similar altitude band with ATLAS F DEB.