THOR ABLESTAR DEB

THOR ABLESTAR DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1961-06-29 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, United States. After more than 65 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 956 km and 1,747 km with an inclination of 67.9°. It travels at approximately 25,864 km/h (7.18 km/s), completing one full orbit every 113 minutes — that’s roughly 12.77 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, THOR ABLESTAR 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.

THOR ABLESTAR DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,352 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 THOR ABLESTAR DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 61 active payloads and 237 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 67.9°, THOR ABLESTAR DEB passes over latitudes between 67.9°N and 67.9°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. United States operates approximately 13,279 active satellites in total, of which 11 share a similar altitude band with THOR ABLESTAR DEB.