COSMOS 375 DEB

COSMOS 375 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 1970-10-30 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on the I2P launch. After more than 56 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 653 km and 1,903 km with an inclination of 63.1°. It travels at approximately 25,988 km/h (7.22 km/s), completing one full orbit every 111 minutes — that’s roughly 12.96 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, COSMOS 375 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.

COSMOS 375 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,278 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 COSMOS 375 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 20 active payloads and 379 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 63.1°, COSMOS 375 DEB passes over latitudes between 63.1°N and 63.1°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,535 active satellites in total, of which 5 share a similar altitude band with COSMOS 375 DEB.