ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA)

ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA) is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to France, launched on 2017-06-28 from Guiana Space Centre, Kourou on the HellasSat 3/GSAT 17 launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 223 km and 16,888 km with an inclination of 2.9°. It travels at approximately 18,603 km/h (5.17 km/s), completing one full orbit every 5 hours 3 minutes — that’s roughly 4.76 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.5582 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA) 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.

ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA) orbits at an average altitude of 8,556 km in Medium Earth Orbit, the region between LEO and GEO (2,000–35,786 km). MEO’s higher altitude gives each satellite a much larger ground footprint than LEO, meaning fewer spacecraft are needed for global coverage — but signal latency is higher and radiation from the Van Allen belts is a significant design constraint. Within ±50 km of ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA)’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 4 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 2.9°, ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA) passes over latitudes between 2.9°N and 2.9°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. France operates approximately 115 active satellites in total.