COSMOS 2499 DEB

COSMOS 2499 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 2014-05-23 from PKMTR. After 12 years in orbit, it continues to be tracked by global surveillance networks. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 1,182 km and 1,490 km with an inclination of 82.3°. It travels at approximately 25,890 km/h (7.19 km/s), completing one full orbit every 112 minutes — that’s roughly 12.81 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, COSMOS 2499 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 2499 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,336 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 2499 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 12 active payloads and 167 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 82.3°, COSMOS 2499 DEB passes over latitudes between 82.3°N and 82.3°S, providing near-global coverage including the polar regions. Polar and near-polar orbits are used for reconnaissance, weather monitoring and Earth-observation missions that need to image every part of the planet. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,286 active satellites in total.