ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B

ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2022-08-04 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the SBIRS GEO-6 launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 5,279 km and 35,270 km with an inclination of 15.8°. It travels at approximately 13,924 km/h (3.87 km/s), completing one full orbit every 12 hours 2 minutes — that’s roughly 2.00 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.5628 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 20,275 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 4 active payloads and 19 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 15.8°, ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B passes over latitudes between 15.8°N and 15.8°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. United States operates approximately 12,413 active satellites in total.