An optical survey for space debris on highly eccentric and inclined MEO orbits

Thirteen nights of surveys of Molniya-type orbits were performed between January and August 2013. Eventually 255 surveys were performed during these thirteen nights corresponding to about 47 h of observations. In total 30 uncorrelated faint objects were discovered. On average one uncorrelated object was found every 100 min of observations. Some of these objects show a considerable brightness variation and have a high area-to-mass ratio as determined in the orbit estimation process.