DELTA 4H DEB

DELTA 4H DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 2007-11-11 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the DSP F23 launch. After 19 years in orbit, it continues to be tracked by global surveillance networks. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 791 km and 4,149 km with an inclination of 27.9°. It travels at approximately 24,172 km/h (6.71 km/s), completing one full orbit every 2 hours 18 minutes — that’s roughly 10.43 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1899 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, DELTA 4H 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.

DELTA 4H DEB orbits at an average altitude of 2,470 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 4H DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 6 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 27.9°, DELTA 4H DEB passes over latitudes between 27.9°N and 27.9°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.