DELTA 1 R/B(2)

DELTA 1 R/B(2) is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 1984-08-16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the AMPTE-CCE launch. With over 42 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) at altitudes between 378 km and 48,885 km with an inclination of 26.7°. It travels at approximately 12,908 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 0.7823 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like DELTA 1 R/B(2) are among the largest pieces of uncontrolled space debris and are priority targets for collision avoidance manoeuvres and future active debris removal efforts.

DELTA 1 R/B(2) follows a Highly Elliptical Orbit, sweeping between 378 km (perigee) and 48,885 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 26.7°, DELTA 1 R/B(2) passes over latitudes between 26.7°N and 26.7°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.