SL-8 DEB

SL-8 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 1981-12-17 from PKMTR on the RS-3 launch. With over 45 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 1,642 km and 1,680 km with an inclination of 83.0°. It travels at approximately 25,361 km/h (7.04 km/s), completing one full orbit every 120 minutes — that’s roughly 12.04 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, SL-8 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.

SL-8 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,661 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 SL-8 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 19 active payloads and 98 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 83.0°, SL-8 DEB passes over latitudes between 83.0°N and 83.0°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 1,285 active satellites in total, of which 10 share a similar altitude band with SL-8 DEB.