FALCON 9 R/B

FALCON 9 R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2025-01-04 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the Thuraya 4-NGS launch. As a relatively recent addition to the catalogue, its orbital elements are well-characterised. It orbits in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) at altitudes between 610 km and 53,579 km with an inclination of 24.9°. It travels at approximately 12,424 km/h (3.45 km/s), completing one full orbit every 16 hours 56 minutes — that’s roughly 1.42 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7914 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 610 km (perigee) and 53,579 km (apogee). It spends most of its 16 hours 56 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 24.9°, FALCON 9 R/B passes over latitudes between 24.9°N and 24.9°S, covering the tropical and temperate zones where most of the world’s population resides. Low-to-mid inclination orbits are efficient to reach from equatorial and mid-latitude launch sites. United States operates approximately 12,413 active satellites in total.