FENGYUN 1C DEB

FENGYUN 1C DEB is a tracked piece of space debris attributed to China, launched on 1999-05-10 from Taiyuan, China on the Feng Yun Yi Beng launch. With over 27 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 847 km and 2,500 km with an inclination of 99.2°. It travels at approximately 25,341 km/h (7.04 km/s), completing one full orbit every 120 minutes — that’s roughly 12.02 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1027 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, FENGYUN 1C 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.

FENGYUN 1C DEB orbits at an average altitude of 1,674 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 FENGYUN 1C DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 19 active payloads and 85 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 99.2°, FENGYUN 1C DEB passes over latitudes between 99.2°N and 99.2°S, providing near-global coverage including the polar regions. Polar and near-polar orbits are used for reconnaissance, weather monitoring and Earth-observation missions that need to image every part of the planet. China operates approximately 1,221 active satellites in total.