SCATHA

SCATHA is an active satellite operated by United States, launched on 1979-01-30 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the P78-2 launch. With over 47 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 27,968 km and 42,910 km with an inclination of 9.7°. It travels at approximately 11,116 km/h (3.09 km/s), completing one full orbit every 23 hours 38 minutes — that’s roughly 1.02 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1787 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. At geostationary altitude, there is no meaningful atmospheric drag — this object will remain in orbit indefinitely unless actively deorbited. Orbital Radar tracks SCATHA in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

SCATHA orbits at an average altitude of 35,439 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 SCATHA’s average altitude, there are currently 2 active payloads and 17 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 9.7°, SCATHA passes over latitudes between 9.7°N and 9.7°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. United States operates approximately 12,413 active satellites in total.