FREGAT R/B

FREGAT R/B is a spent rocket body associated with Russia (CIS), launched on 2018-03-09 from Guiana Space Centre, Kourou on the O3b FM13/14/15/16 launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 7,656 km and 7,686 km with an inclination of 0.0°. It travels at approximately 19,180 km/h (5.33 km/s), completing one full orbit every 4 hours 36 minutes — that’s roughly 5.21 orbits per day. Spent rocket bodies like FREGAT 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.

FREGAT R/B orbits at an average altitude of 7,671 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 FREGAT R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 11 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 0.0°, FREGAT R/B passes over latitudes between 0.0°N and 0.0°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,286 active satellites in total.