USA 40 R/B DEB

USA 40 R/B DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to United States, launched on 1989-08-08 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the OV-102 Medium deploy launch. With over 37 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 441 km and 2,961 km with an inclination of 57.0°. It travels at approximately 25,298 km/h (7.03 km/s), completing one full orbit every 2 hours — that’s roughly 11.95 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1561 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. As orbital debris, USA 40 R/B 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.

USA 40 R/B DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,701 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 USA 40 R/B DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 16 active payloads and 58 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 57.0°, USA 40 R/B DEB passes over latitudes between 57.0°N and 57.0°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. United States operates approximately 12,413 active satellites in total.