ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR R/B

ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2001-06-19 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the ICO 2 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 9,807 km and 10,114 km with an inclination of 45.0°. It travels at approximately 17,785 km/h (4.94 km/s), completing one full orbit every 5 hours 46 minutes — that’s roughly 4.16 orbits per day. Spent rocket bodies like ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR 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.

ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR R/B orbits at an average altitude of 9,961 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 ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 2 active payloads and 4 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 45.0°, ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR R/B passes over latitudes between 45.0°N and 45.0°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. United States operates approximately 12,413 active satellites in total.