COSMOS 2491 DEB

COSMOS 2491 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 2013-12-25 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia on the Rodnik launch. After 13 years in orbit, it continues to be tracked by global surveillance networks. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 1,427 km and 1,499 km with an inclination of 82.5°. It travels at approximately 25,679 km/h (7.13 km/s), completing one full orbit every 115 minutes — that’s roughly 12.50 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, COSMOS 2491 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 2491 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,463 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 2491 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 498 active payloads and 379 tracked debris or rocket body fragments. With an inclination of 82.5°, COSMOS 2491 DEB passes over latitudes between 82.5°N and 82.5°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 1,518 active satellites in total, of which 447 share a similar altitude band with COSMOS 2491 DEB.