CZ-3C R/B

CZ-3C R/B is a spent rocket body associated with China, launched on 2010-01-16 from Xichang, China on the di san ke beidou daohang launch. After 16 years in orbit, it continues to be tracked by global surveillance networks. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 252 km and 30,702 km with an inclination of 20.2°. It travels at approximately 15,377 km/h (4.27 km/s), completing one full orbit every 8 hours 56 minutes — that’s roughly 2.69 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.6969 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like CZ-3C 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-3C R/B orbits at an average altitude of 15,477 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-3C R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 5 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 20.2°, CZ-3C R/B passes over latitudes between 20.2°N and 20.2°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.