TOS R/B

TOS R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 1993-09-12 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the OV-103 IUS deploy/FF launch. With over 33 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 367 km and 37,837 km with an inclination of 15.2°. It travels at approximately 14,241 km/h (3.96 km/s), completing one full orbit every 11 hours 15 minutes — that’s roughly 2.13 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7355 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like TOS 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.

TOS R/B orbits at an average altitude of 19,102 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 TOS R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 142 active payloads and 50 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include COSMOS 1413 (GLONASS), COSMOS 1414 (GLONASS), COSMOS 1415 (GLONASS). With an inclination of 15.2°, TOS R/B passes over latitudes between 15.2°N and 15.2°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.