ATLAS AGENA R/B

ATLAS AGENA R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 1969-04-13 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the CANYON 2 launch. After more than 57 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 30,451 km and 39,172 km with an inclination of 14.4°. It travels at approximately 11,200 km/h (3.11 km/s), completing one full orbit every 23 hours 7 minutes — that’s roughly 1.04 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1059 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like ATLAS AGENA 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.

ATLAS AGENA R/B orbits at an average altitude of 34,812 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. With an inclination of 14.4°, ATLAS AGENA R/B passes over latitudes between 14.4°N and 14.4°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. United States operates approximately 12,413 active satellites in total.