DELTA 2 R/B

DELTA 2 R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2014-07-02 from Vandenberg SFB, California on the OCO-2 launch. After 12 years in orbit, it continues to be tracked by global surveillance networks. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 2,379 km and 10,135 km with an inclination of 98.2°. It travels at approximately 20,226 km/h (5.62 km/s), completing one full orbit every 3 hours 56 minutes — that’s roughly 6.11 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.3071 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like DELTA 2 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.

DELTA 2 R/B orbits at an average altitude of 6,257 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 DELTA 2 R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload 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 98.2°, DELTA 2 R/B passes over latitudes between 98.2°N and 98.2°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. United States operates approximately 12,413 active satellites in total.