SL-12 R/B(AUX MOTOR)

SL-12 R/B(AUX MOTOR) is a spent rocket body associated with Russia (CIS), launched on 1988-05-21 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on the Uragan No. 39L launch. With over 38 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 592 km and 18,703 km with an inclination of 65.5°. It travels at approximately 17,958 km/h (4.99 km/s), completing one full orbit every 5 hours 37 minutes — that’s roughly 4.28 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.5653 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like SL-12 R/B(AUX MOTOR) are among the largest pieces of uncontrolled space debris and are priority targets for collision avoidance manoeuvres and future active debris removal efforts.

SL-12 R/B(AUX MOTOR) orbits at an average altitude of 9,648 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 SL-12 R/B(AUX MOTOR)’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 14 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 65.5°, SL-12 R/B(AUX MOTOR) passes over latitudes between 65.5°N and 65.5°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,287 active satellites in total.