IRIDIUM 33 DEB

NORAD 37565· Debris· LEO

Iridium NEXT satellite (representative) — Representative Iridium NEXT image · Flickr user ideonexus · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Live · TLE epoch 2026-06-05 15:53 UTC

Orbit class

LEO — Low Earth Orbit (circular, < 2,000 km)

Operator

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Country

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Manufacturer

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Launched

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Mass

—

Apogee

731 km

Perigee

714 km

Inclination

86.34°

Period

1.65 h

Debris origin · satellite collision

Iridium 33 was an operational satellite in the Iridium voice-and-data constellation when it was struck by the defunct Russian Kosmos-2251 on 10 February 2009 at about 789 km altitude — the first accidental collision between two intact satellites. Its debris cloud accounts for roughly 600 catalogued fragments; together the two clouds produced over 2,000.

Parent object

Iridium 33

Event date

Feb 10, 2009

Altitude

~789 km

2009 satellite collision (Wikipedia) →

Part of the Iridium NEXT constellation · this satellite is one of 190

Second-generation Iridium constellation; 66 active sats provide global comms.

See all Iridium NEXT satellites →

Related satellites

Sources & further reading

CelesTrak — TLE source

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