JIELONG 3 R/B

JIELONG 3 R/B is a spent rocket body associated with China, launched on 2023-12-05 from SCSLA on the WHJSW 03 launch. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 336 km and 659 km with an inclination of 86.6°. It travels at approximately 27,425 km/h (7.62 km/s), completing one full orbit every 95 minutes — that’s roughly 15.23 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~1–3 years. Spent rocket bodies like JIELONG 3 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.

JIELONG 3 R/B orbits at an average altitude of 498 km in the core of Low Earth Orbit, the most heavily utilised altitude band. The balance of moderate drag (limiting debris accumulation) and short signal path (enabling low-latency links and high-resolution imaging) makes this regime the default for most commercial and government missions. Within ±50 km of JIELONG 3 R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 9,215 active payloads and 237 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include STARLINK-1017, STARLINK-1039, STARLINK-1047. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 52.7% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 86.6°, JIELONG 3 R/B passes over latitudes between 86.6°N and 86.6°S, providing near-global coverage including the polar regions. Polar and near-polar orbits are used for reconnaissance, weather monitoring and Earth-observation missions that need to image every part of the planet. China operates approximately 1,221 active satellites in total, of which 192 share a similar altitude band with JIELONG 3 R/B.