CZ-2C R/B

CZ-2C R/B is a spent rocket body associated with China, launched on 2004-07-25 from Taiyuan, China on the Double Star DSP-P launch. With over 22 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 431 km and 34,787 km with an inclination of 87.9°. It travels at approximately 14,677 km/h (4.08 km/s), completing one full orbit every 10 hours 16 minutes — that’s roughly 2.34 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7163 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like CZ-2C 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-2C R/B orbits at an average altitude of 17,609 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-2C R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 8 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 87.9°, CZ-2C R/B passes over latitudes between 87.9°N and 87.9°S, providing near-global coverage including the polar regions. Polar and near-polar orbits are used for reconnaissance, weather monitoring and Earth-observation missions that need to image every part of the planet. China operates approximately 1,221 active satellites in total.