SL-12 R/B(2)

SL-12 R/B(2) is a spent rocket body associated with Russia (CIS), launched on 2000-09-05 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on the Sirius CD Radio 2 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 4,705 km and 48,253 km with an inclination of 63.2°. It travels at approximately 12,540 km/h (3.48 km/s), completing one full orbit every 16 hours 28 minutes — that’s roughly 1.46 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.6628 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like SL-12 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.

SL-12 R/B(2) follows a Highly Elliptical Orbit, sweeping between 4,705 km (perigee) and 48,253 km (apogee). It spends most of its 16 hours 28 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 SL-12 R/B(2)’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 5 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 63.2°, SL-12 R/B(2) passes over latitudes between 63.2°N and 63.2°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,286 active satellites in total.