BREEZE-KM DEB

BREEZE-KM DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 2015-03-31 from PKMTR on the Gonets-M No. 21/22/23 launch. After 11 years in orbit, it continues to be tracked by global surveillance networks. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 1,123 km and 1,457 km with an inclination of 82.5°. It travels at approximately 25,967 km/h (7.21 km/s), completing one full orbit every 111 minutes — that’s roughly 12.93 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, BREEZE-KM 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.

BREEZE-KM DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,290 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 BREEZE-KM DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 16 active payloads and 283 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 82.5°, BREEZE-KM DEB passes over latitudes between 82.5°N and 82.5°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 2 share a similar altitude band with BREEZE-KM DEB.