DELTA 2 R/B(2)

DELTA 2 R/B(2) is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2000-03-25 from Vandenberg SFB, California on the IMAGE launch. With over 26 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) at altitudes between 1,243 km and 45,728 km with an inclination of 94.2°. It travels at approximately 13,154 km/h (3.65 km/s), completing one full orbit every 14 hours 16 minutes — that’s roughly 1.68 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7450 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) follows a Highly Elliptical Orbit, sweeping between 1,243 km (perigee) and 45,728 km (apogee). It spends most of its 14 hours 16 minutes orbital period near apogee, effectively loitering over a region of interest before rapidly sweeping through perigee — a profile used for high-latitude communications (Molniya orbits), early-warning systems and magnetospheric science. Within ±50 km of DELTA 2 R/B(2)’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 6 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 94.2°, DELTA 2 R/B(2) passes over latitudes between 94.2°N and 94.2°S, providing near-global coverage including the polar regions. Polar and near-polar orbits are used for reconnaissance, weather monitoring and Earth-observation missions that need to image every part of the planet. United States operates approximately 12,413 active satellites in total.