ARIANE 42P DEB

ARIANE 42P DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to France, launched on 1992-08-10 from Guiana Space Centre, Kourou on the Topex-Poseidon launch. With over 34 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 1,250 km and 1,396 km with an inclination of 66.1°. It travels at approximately 25,912 km/h (7.20 km/s), completing one full orbit every 112 minutes — that’s roughly 12.85 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, ARIANE 42P 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.

ARIANE 42P DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,323 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 ARIANE 42P DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 13 active payloads and 225 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 66.1°, ARIANE 42P DEB passes over latitudes between 66.1°N and 66.1°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. France operates approximately 115 active satellites in total, of which 2 share a similar altitude band with ARIANE 42P DEB.