SLS DEB

SLS DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 2022-11-16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the Artemis I launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 379 km and 2,482 km with an inclination of 30.5°. It travels at approximately 25,733 km/h (7.15 km/s), completing one full orbit every 114 minutes — that’s roughly 12.58 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1348 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, SLS 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.

SLS DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,431 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 SLS DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 342 active payloads and 170 tracked debris or rocket body fragments. With an inclination of 30.5°, SLS DEB passes over latitudes between 30.5°N and 30.5°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. United States operates approximately 12,358 active satellites in total.