BREEZE-M DEB (TANK)

BREEZE-M DEB (TANK) is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 2021-12-13 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on the Ekpress-AMU3/AMU7 launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 244 km and 22,861 km with an inclination of 49.5°. It travels at approximately 16,977 km/h (4.72 km/s), completing one full orbit every 6 hours 38 minutes — that’s roughly 3.62 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.6309 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, BREEZE-M DEB (TANK) 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.

BREEZE-M DEB (TANK) orbits at an average altitude of 11,553 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 BREEZE-M DEB (TANK)’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 4 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 49.5°, BREEZE-M DEB (TANK) passes over latitudes between 49.5°N and 49.5°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. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,285 active satellites in total.