ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B

ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2013-12-06 from Vandenberg SFB, California on the TOPAZ 3 launch. After 13 years in orbit, it continues to be tracked by global surveillance networks. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 454 km and 692 km with an inclination of 120.4°. It travels at approximately 27,275 km/h (7.58 km/s), completing one full orbit every 96 minutes — that’s roughly 14.98 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~3–10 years. Spent rocket bodies like ATLAS 5 CENTAUR 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 5 CENTAUR R/B orbits at an average altitude of 573 km in the core of Low Earth Orbit, the most heavily utilised altitude band. The balance of moderate drag (limiting debris accumulation) and short signal path (enabling low-latency links and high-resolution imaging) makes this regime the default for most commercial and government missions. Within ±50 km of ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 2,976 active payloads and 502 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0050, STARLINK-1522, STARLINK-2112. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 17% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 120.4°, ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B passes over latitudes between 120.4°N and 120.4°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, of which 2,436 share a similar altitude band with ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B.