ARIANE 44L+ DEB

ARIANE 44L+ DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to France, launched on 1992-04-15 from Guiana Space Centre, Kourou on the Telecom 2B launch. With over 34 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 976 km and 35,518 km with an inclination of 4.1°. It travels at approximately 14,486 km/h (4.02 km/s), completing one full orbit every 10 hours 41 minutes — that’s roughly 2.25 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7016 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, ARIANE 44L+ 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.

ARIANE 44L+ DEB orbits at an average altitude of 18,247 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 44L+ DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 39 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 4.1°, ARIANE 44L+ DEB passes over latitudes between 4.1°N and 4.1°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. France operates approximately 115 active satellites in total.