THORAD AGENA D DEB

THORAD AGENA D DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1970-04-08 from Vandenberg SFB, California on the Nimbus D launch. After more than 56 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 1,014 km and 1,727 km with an inclination of 100.2°. It travels at approximately 25,832 km/h (7.18 km/s), completing one full orbit every 113 minutes — that’s roughly 12.73 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, THORAD AGENA D 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.

THORAD AGENA D DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,371 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 THORAD AGENA D DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 166 active payloads and 153 tracked debris or rocket body fragments. With an inclination of 100.2°, THORAD AGENA D DEB passes over latitudes between 100.2°N and 100.2°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. United States operates approximately 12,358 active satellites in total, of which 4 share a similar altitude band with THORAD AGENA D DEB.