DELTA 1 DEB (YO)

DELTA 1 DEB (YO) is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1978-01-26 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the IUE launch. With over 48 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 303 km and 21,121 km with an inclination of 29.5°. It travels at approximately 17,390 km/h (4.83 km/s), completing one full orbit every 6 hours 11 minutes — that’s roughly 3.89 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.6093 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, DELTA 1 DEB (YO) 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 1 DEB (YO) orbits at an average altitude of 10,712 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 1 DEB (YO)’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 4 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 29.5°, DELTA 1 DEB (YO) passes over latitudes between 29.5°N and 29.5°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.