TIROS 9

TIROS 9 is an active satellite operated by GSFC (United States), launched on 1965-01-22 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, United States on the Tiros I launch. After more than 61 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 704 km and 2,559 km with an inclination of 96.4°. It travels at approximately 25,407 km/h (7.06 km/s), completing one full orbit every 119 minutes — that’s roughly 12.11 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1159 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. Orbital Radar tracks TIROS 9 in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

TIROS 9 orbits at an average altitude of 1,632 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 TIROS 9’s average altitude, there are currently 29 active payloads and 193 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 96.4°, TIROS 9 passes over latitudes between 96.4°N and 96.4°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. United States operates approximately 13,279 active satellites in total, of which 2 share a similar altitude band with TIROS 9.