METEOR 2-6 DEB

METEOR 2-6 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 1980-09-09 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia on the Meteor-2 No. 5 launch. With over 46 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 553 km and 567 km with an inclination of 81.2°. It travels at approximately 27,301 km/h (7.58 km/s), completing one full orbit every 96 minutes — that’s roughly 15.02 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~3–10 years. As orbital debris, METEOR 2-6 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.

METEOR 2-6 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 560 km in the core of Low Earth Orbit, the most heavily utilised altitude band. The balance of moderate drag (limiting debris accumulation) and short signal path (enabling low-latency links and high-resolution imaging) makes this regime the default for most commercial and government missions. Within ±50 km of METEOR 2-6 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 1,409 active payloads and 465 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0050, STARLINK-2112, STARLINK-2722. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 7.1% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 81.2°, METEOR 2-6 DEB passes over latitudes between 81.2°N and 81.2°S, providing near-global coverage including the polar regions. Polar and near-polar orbits are used for reconnaissance, weather monitoring and Earth-observation missions that need to image every part of the planet. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,575 active satellites in total, of which 39 share a similar altitude band with METEOR 2-6 DEB.