COSMOS 886 DEB

COSMOS 886 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 1976-12-27 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on the IS launch. After more than 50 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 645 km and 1,960 km with an inclination of 65.9°. It travels at approximately 25,946 km/h (7.21 km/s), completing one full orbit every 112 minutes — that’s roughly 12.90 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, COSMOS 886 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 886 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,303 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 886 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 21 active payloads and 394 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 65.9°, COSMOS 886 DEB passes over latitudes between 65.9°N and 65.9°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,535 active satellites in total, of which 5 share a similar altitude band with COSMOS 886 DEB.