CZ-5 R/B

CZ-5 R/B is a spent rocket body associated with China, launched on 2024-02-23 from Wenchang, China on the TJS 11 launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 250 km and 31,638 km with an inclination of 16.4°. It travels at approximately 15,215 km/h (4.23 km/s), completing one full orbit every 9 hours 13 minutes — that’s roughly 2.60 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7033 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like CZ-5 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.

CZ-5 R/B orbits at an average altitude of 15,944 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 CZ-5 R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 11 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 16.4°, CZ-5 R/B passes over latitudes between 16.4°N and 16.4°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. China operates approximately 1,221 active satellites in total.