FALCON HEAVY R/B

FALCON HEAVY R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2024-06-25 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the GOES U launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 16,167 km and 35,062 km with an inclination of 5.9°. It travels at approximately 12,709 km/h (3.53 km/s), completing one full orbit every 15 hours 49 minutes — that’s roughly 1.52 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.2954 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like FALCON HEAVY 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.

FALCON HEAVY R/B orbits at an average altitude of 25,615 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. With an inclination of 5.9°, FALCON HEAVY R/B passes over latitudes between 5.9°N and 5.9°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.