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 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 600 km and 1,805 km with an inclination of 98.1°. It travels at approximately 26,117 km/h (7.25 km/s), completing one full orbit every 109 minutes — that’s roughly 13.15 orbits per day. 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 1,203 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 FENGYUN 1C DEB’s average altitude, there are currently 735 active payloads and 205 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0012, ONEWEB-0010, ONEWEB-0008. With an inclination of 98.1°, FENGYUN 1C DEB passes over latitudes between 98.1°N and 98.1°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, of which 67 share a similar altitude band with FENGYUN 1C DEB.