BREEZE-M R/B

BREEZE-M R/B is a spent rocket body associated with Russia (CIS), launched on 2020-07-30 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on the Ekspress-80/103 launch. It orbits in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) at altitudes between 16,951 km and 52,816 km with an inclination of 7.5°. It travels at approximately 11,190 km/h (3.11 km/s), completing one full orbit every 23 hours 10 minutes — that’s roughly 1.04 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.4347 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like BREEZE-M 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.

BREEZE-M R/B follows a Highly Elliptical Orbit, sweeping between 16,951 km (perigee) and 52,816 km (apogee). It spends most of its 23 hours 10 minutes orbital period near apogee, effectively loitering over a region of interest before rapidly sweeping through perigee — a profile used for high-latitude communications (Molniya orbits), early-warning systems and magnetospheric science. With an inclination of 7.5°, BREEZE-M R/B passes over latitudes between 7.5°N and 7.5°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.