SL-12 R/B(2)

SL-12 R/B(2) is a spent rocket body associated with Russia (CIS), launched on 2002-03-30 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on the INTELSAT 903 launch. With over 24 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 3,467 km and 35,910 km with an inclination of 25.6°. It travels at approximately 14,080 km/h (3.91 km/s), completing one full orbit every 11 hours 38 minutes — that’s roughly 2.06 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.6225 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) orbits at an average altitude of 19,689 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 SL-12 R/B(2)’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 9 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 25.6°, SL-12 R/B(2) passes over latitudes between 25.6°N and 25.6°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. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,286 active satellites in total.