ATLAS 5 CENTAUR DEB

ATLAS 5 CENTAUR DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 2014-09-17 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the CLIO launch. After 12 years in orbit, it continues to be tracked by global surveillance networks. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 7,927 km and 34,499 km with an inclination of 20.6°. It travels at approximately 13,685 km/h (3.80 km/s), completing one full orbit every 12 hours 40 minutes — that’s roughly 1.89 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.4817 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, ATLAS 5 CENTAUR 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.

ATLAS 5 CENTAUR DEB orbits at an average altitude of 21,213 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 ATLAS 5 CENTAUR DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 8 active payloads and 14 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 20.6°, ATLAS 5 CENTAUR DEB passes over latitudes between 20.6°N and 20.6°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, of which 8 share a similar altitude band with ATLAS 5 CENTAUR DEB.