DEBRIS
FENGYUN 1C DEB
Anti-Satellite Test Debris · China
Right now
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- Over
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- Altitude
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One of the fragments thrown hardest by China's 2007 anti-satellite test, when a missile smashed the Fengyun-1C weather satellite 537 miles up. The hit added speed to this piece, and the extra speed lifts it high on the far side of every orbit. It now climbs to about 745 miles, more than 200 miles above the spot where the satellite was destroyed, and dips to about 465. Air drag is what eventually brings debris down, and up here the air is even thinner, so pieces like this one will be among the last of the Fengyun-1C cloud to fall. Expect it to be up there for decades yet, crossing the paths of working satellites below it on every lap.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Low Earth Orbitcan appear as a fast-moving star at dawn or dusk
- Altitude
- 469–747 mi (755–1,202 km)
- Inclination
- 98.8°
- One orbit
- 104.5 minutes13.8 orbits a day
- NORAD ID
- 31053
- Int’l designator
- 1999-025BEX
- Launched
- 1999
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 6 Nov 2026.
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