DELTA 2 R/B(2)

DELTA 2 R/B(2) is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 1994-02-19 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the Galaxy 1RR launch. With over 32 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 2,780 km and 37,267 km with an inclination of 24.5°. It travels at approximately 13,990 km/h (3.89 km/s), completing one full orbit every 11 hours 52 minutes — that’s roughly 2.02 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.6533 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like DELTA 2 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 2 R/B(2) orbits at an average altitude of 20,024 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 DELTA 2 R/B(2)’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 18 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 24.5°, DELTA 2 R/B(2) passes over latitudes between 24.5°N and 24.5°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.