CZ-3B R/B

CZ-3B R/B is a spent rocket body associated with China, launched on 1998-07-18 from Xichang, China on the xinnuo yihao launch. With over 28 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 570 km and 35,763 km with an inclination of 19.1°. It travels at approximately 14,510 km/h (4.03 km/s), completing one full orbit every 10 hours 38 minutes — that’s roughly 2.26 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7171 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like CZ-3B 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.

CZ-3B R/B orbits at an average altitude of 18,167 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 CZ-3B R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 2 active payloads and 24 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 19.1°, CZ-3B R/B passes over latitudes between 19.1°N and 19.1°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. China operates approximately 1,221 active satellites in total.