ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B

ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2023-08-23 from RLLC on the Capella 11 Acadia-1 launch. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 608 km and 622 km with an inclination of 53.0°. It travels at approximately 27,193 km/h (7.55 km/s), completing one full orbit every 97 minutes — that’s roughly 14.85 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~10–25 years. Spent rocket bodies like ELECTRON KICK STAGE 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.

ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B orbits at an average altitude of 615 km in the mid-LEO band, where atmospheric drag is minimal but radiation exposure remains manageable. Objects at this altitude persist for decades to centuries, making debris mitigation critical. This regime is popular for remote sensing constellations and scientific instruments that need stable, long-duration orbits. Within ±50 km of ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 1,569 active payloads and 733 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0050, STARLINK-3090, STARLINK-3077. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 9% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 53.0°, ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B passes over latitudes between 53.0°N and 53.0°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. United States operates approximately 12,413 active satellites in total, of which 1,081 share a similar altitude band with ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B.