DELTA 2 R/B

DELTA 2 R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 1990-04-13 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the Palapa B2R launch. With over 36 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 481 km and 1,154 km with an inclination of 22.7°. It travels at approximately 26,807 km/h (7.45 km/s), completing one full orbit every 101 minutes — that’s roughly 14.22 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~100–500 years. Spent rocket bodies like DELTA 2 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.

DELTA 2 R/B orbits at an average altitude of 818 km in the upper LEO band, where atmospheric drag is negligible and objects can persist for centuries to millennia. This altitude is used by broadband constellations like OneWeb and by scientific missions requiring stable orbits far from the densest debris bands. Within ±50 km of DELTA 2 R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 400 active payloads and 2,306 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include NOAA 20, ONEWEB-0179, ONEWEB-0455. With an inclination of 22.7°, DELTA 2 R/B passes over latitudes between 22.7°N and 22.7°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, of which 134 share a similar altitude band with DELTA 2 R/B.