BLOCK DM R/B

BLOCK DM R/B is a spent rocket body associated with Russia (CIS), launched on 2001-05-15 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on the PAS 10 launch. With over 25 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 7,074 km and 35,888 km with an inclination of 18.6°. It travels at approximately 13,619 km/h (3.78 km/s), completing one full orbit every 12 hours 51 minutes — that’s roughly 1.87 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.5173 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like BLOCK DM 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.

BLOCK DM R/B orbits at an average altitude of 21,481 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 BLOCK DM R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 38 active payloads and 7 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 18.6°, BLOCK DM R/B passes over latitudes between 18.6°N and 18.6°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,286 active satellites in total.