ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B

ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2014-09-17 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the CLIO 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 8,194 km and 35,007 km with an inclination of 20.2°. It travels at approximately 13,590 km/h (3.77 km/s), completing one full orbit every 12 hours 56 minutes — that’s roughly 1.86 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.4793 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like ATLAS 5 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 5 CENTAUR R/B orbits at an average altitude of 21,601 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 5 CENTAUR R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 3 active payloads and 7 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include GALILEO 5 (261), GALILEO 6 (262). This is a relatively sparse altitude band, containing less than 1% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 20.2°, ATLAS 5 CENTAUR 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. United States operates approximately 12,413 active satellites in total.