METEOR 2-5 DEB

METEOR 2-5 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 1979-10-31 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia on the Meteor-2 No. 7 launch. With over 47 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 510 km and 538 km with an inclination of 81.1°. It travels at approximately 27,372 km/h (7.60 km/s), completing one full orbit every 95 minutes — that’s roughly 15.14 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~3–10 years. As orbital debris, METEOR 2-5 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.

METEOR 2-5 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 524 km in the core of Low Earth Orbit, the most heavily utilised altitude band. The balance of moderate drag (limiting debris accumulation) and short signal path (enabling low-latency links and high-resolution imaging) makes this regime the default for most commercial and government missions. Within ±50 km of METEOR 2-5 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 5,076 active payloads and 294 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include STARLINK-1184, STARLINK-1276, STARLINK-1451. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 26.8% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 81.1°, METEOR 2-5 DEB passes over latitudes between 81.1°N and 81.1°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 1,550 active satellites in total, of which 74 share a similar altitude band with METEOR 2-5 DEB.