COSMOS 252 DEB

COSMOS 252 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 1968-11-01 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on the I2P launch. After more than 58 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 743 km and 1,943 km with an inclination of 62.3°. It travels at approximately 25,878 km/h (7.19 km/s), completing one full orbit every 113 minutes — that’s roughly 12.80 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, COSMOS 252 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.

COSMOS 252 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,343 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 COSMOS 252 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 30 active payloads and 232 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 62.3°, COSMOS 252 DEB passes over latitudes between 62.3°N and 62.3°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,535 active satellites in total, of which 10 share a similar altitude band with COSMOS 252 DEB.