FREGAT R/B

FREGAT R/B is a spent rocket body associated with Russia (CIS), launched on 2020-05-22 from PKMTR on the Kupol No. 4 launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 1,075 km and 39,147 km with an inclination of 63.5°. It travels at approximately 13,967 km/h (3.88 km/s), completing one full orbit every 11 hours 55 minutes — that’s roughly 2.01 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7188 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like FREGAT 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.

FREGAT R/B orbits at an average altitude of 20,111 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 FREGAT R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 11 active payloads and 16 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 63.5°, FREGAT R/B passes over latitudes between 63.5°N and 63.5°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,286 active satellites in total, of which 10 share a similar altitude band with FREGAT R/B.