ARIANE 5 R/B

ARIANE 5 R/B is a spent rocket body associated with France, launched on 2009-10-29 from Guiana Space Centre, Kourou on the NSS 12 launch. After 17 years in orbit, it continues to be tracked by global surveillance networks. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 201 km and 20,803 km with an inclination of 6.3°. It travels at approximately 17,497 km/h (4.86 km/s), completing one full orbit every 6 hours 4 minutes — that’s roughly 3.96 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.6105 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like ARIANE 5 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.

ARIANE 5 R/B orbits at an average altitude of 10,502 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. With an inclination of 6.3°, ARIANE 5 R/B passes over latitudes between 6.3°N and 6.3°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. France operates approximately 115 active satellites in total.