IUS DEB

IUS DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1999-07-23 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the OV-102 IUS deploy launch. With over 27 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 806 km and 9,499 km with an inclination of 28.1°. It travels at approximately 21,173 km/h (5.88 km/s), completing one full orbit every 3 hours 25 minutes — that’s roughly 7.01 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.3772 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, IUS 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.

IUS DEB orbits at an average altitude of 5,153 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 IUS DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 2 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 28.1°, IUS DEB passes over latitudes between 28.1°N and 28.1°S, covering the tropical and temperate zones where most of the world’s population resides. Low-to-mid inclination orbits are efficient to reach from equatorial and mid-latitude launch sites. United States operates approximately 12,358 active satellites in total.