CZ-3A R/B

CZ-3A R/B is a spent rocket body associated with China, launched on 2000-06-25 from Xichang, China on the Feng Yun Er Yi launch. With over 26 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 268 km and 18,547 km with an inclination of 27.4°. It travels at approximately 18,094 km/h (5.03 km/s), completing one full orbit every 5 hours 29 minutes — that’s roughly 4.38 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.5792 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like CZ-3A R/B are among the largest pieces of uncontrolled space debris and are priority targets for collision avoidance manoeuvres and future active debris removal efforts.

CZ-3A R/B orbits at an average altitude of 9,408 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 CZ-3A R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 10 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 27.4°, CZ-3A R/B passes over latitudes between 27.4°N and 27.4°S, covering the tropical and temperate zones where most of the world’s population resides. Low-to-mid inclination orbits are efficient to reach from equatorial and mid-latitude launch sites. China operates approximately 1,221 active satellites in total.