ARASENE

ARASENE is an active satellite operated by France, launched on 1993-05-12 from Guiana Space Centre, Kourou. With over 33 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 17,488 km and 36,563 km with an inclination of 5.2°. It travels at approximately 12,437 km/h (3.45 km/s), completing one full orbit every 16 hours 53 minutes — that’s roughly 1.42 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.2856 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Orbital Radar tracks ARASENE in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

ARASENE operates in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), the region between LEO and GEO spanning roughly 2,000 to 35,786 km altitude. MEO is home to navigation constellations (GPS at ~20,200 km, Galileo at ~23,222 km, GLONASS at ~19,130 km) and some communications systems. The higher altitude gives each satellite a much larger ground footprint than LEO, meaning fewer satellites are needed for global coverage, but signal latency is higher and radiation exposure — particularly from the Van Allen belts — is a significant design challenge.