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 PKMTR 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 570 km and 581 km with an inclination of 81.1°. It travels at approximately 27,270 km/h (7.58 km/s), completing one full orbit every 96 minutes — that’s roughly 14.97 orbits per day. Its near-circular orbit (eccentricity close to zero) means it maintains a very consistent altitude throughout each revolution. 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 576 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 3,070 active payloads and 511 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0050, STARLINK-2112, STARLINK-2722. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 17.6% 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 1,285 active satellites in total, of which 32 share a similar altitude band with METEOR 2-5 DEB.