FALCON 9 R/B

FALCON 9 R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2024-11-17 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the Optus X launch. It orbits in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) at altitudes between 428 km and 48,854 km with an inclination of 18.4°. It travels at approximately 12,906 km/h (3.59 km/s), completing one full orbit every 15 hours 6 minutes — that’s roughly 1.59 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7808 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like FALCON 9 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 9 R/B follows a Highly Elliptical Orbit, sweeping between 428 km (perigee) and 48,854 km (apogee). It spends most of its 15 hours 6 minutes orbital period near apogee, effectively loitering over a region of interest before rapidly sweeping through perigee — a profile used for high-latitude communications (Molniya orbits), early-warning systems and magnetospheric science. With an inclination of 18.4°, FALCON 9 R/B passes over latitudes between 18.4°N and 18.4°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.