COSMOS 1823 DEB

COSMOS 1823 DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to Russia (CIS), launched on 1987-02-20 from PKMTR on the Musson No. 19 launch. With over 39 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 1,463 km and 1,627 km with an inclination of 73.6°. It travels at approximately 25,546 km/h (7.10 km/s), completing one full orbit every 117 minutes — that’s roughly 12.31 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. As orbital debris, COSMOS 1823 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 1823 DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,545 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 1823 DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 61 active payloads and 259 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 73.6°, COSMOS 1823 DEB passes over latitudes between 73.6°N and 73.6°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 1,287 active satellites in total, of which 48 share a similar altitude band with COSMOS 1823 DEB.