SL-24 R/B

SL-24 R/B is a spent rocket body associated with Russia (CIS), launched on 2014-11-06 from OREN on the ANSARO-1 launch. After 12 years in orbit, it continues to be tracked by global surveillance networks. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 484 km and 1,921 km with an inclination of 97.2°. It travels at approximately 26,117 km/h (7.25 km/s), completing one full orbit every 109 minutes — that’s roughly 13.15 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. Spent rocket bodies like SL-24 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.

SL-24 R/B orbits at an average altitude of 1,203 km in the uppermost reaches of Low Earth Orbit. At this altitude, orbital decay is effectively zero without active deorbiting, and coverage footprints are significantly larger than lower LEO, though at the cost of higher latency. Within ±50 km of SL-24 R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 735 active payloads and 206 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0012, ONEWEB-0010, ONEWEB-0008. With an inclination of 97.2°, SL-24 R/B passes over latitudes between 97.2°N and 97.2°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. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,286 active satellites in total, of which 8 share a similar altitude band with SL-24 R/B.