ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA)

ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA) is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to France, launched on 2018-01-25 from Guiana Space Centre, Kourou on the SES-14/Al Yah 3 launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 244 km and 28,378 km with an inclination of 20.8°. It travels at approximately 15,804 km/h (4.39 km/s), completing one full orbit every 8 hours 14 minutes — that’s roughly 2.92 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.6802 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. As orbital debris, ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA) 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.

ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA) orbits at an average altitude of 14,311 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 ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA)’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 8 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 20.8°, ARIANE 5 DEB (SYLDA) passes over latitudes between 20.8°N and 20.8°S, covering the tropical and temperate zones where most of the world’s population resides. Low-to-mid inclination orbits are efficient to reach from equatorial and mid-latitude launch sites. France operates approximately 115 active satellites in total.