FREGAT R/B

FREGAT R/B is a spent rocket body associated with Russia (CIS), launched on 2021-02-28 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on the Arktika-M No. 1 launch. It orbits in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) at altitudes between 537 km and 40,109 km with an inclination of 63.3°. It travels at approximately 13,911 km/h (3.86 km/s), completing one full orbit every 12 hours 4 minutes — that’s roughly 1.99 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7412 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 follows a Highly Elliptical Orbit, sweeping between 537 km (perigee) and 40,109 km (apogee). It spends most of its 12 hours 4 minutes orbital period near apogee, effectively loitering over a region of interest before rapidly sweeping through perigee — a profile used for high-latitude communications (Molniya orbits), early-warning systems and magnetospheric science. Within ±50 km of FREGAT R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 12 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 63.3°, FREGAT R/B passes over latitudes between 63.3°N and 63.3°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.