SL-14 DEB

SL-14 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 1991-08-15 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia on the Meteor-3 No. 5/TOMS launch. With over 35 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 1,193 km and 1,237 km with an inclination of 82.6°. It travels at approximately 26,095 km/h (7.25 km/s), completing one full orbit every 110 minutes — that’s roughly 13.12 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, SL-14 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.

SL-14 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,215 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 SL-14 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 741 active payloads and 302 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0012, ONEWEB-0010, ONEWEB-0008. With an inclination of 82.6°, SL-14 DEB passes over latitudes between 82.6°N and 82.6°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 1,537 active satellites in total, of which 15 share a similar altitude band with SL-14 DEB.