BREEZE-M R/B

BREEZE-M R/B is a spent rocket body associated with Russia (CIS), launched on 2021-12-13 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on the Ekpress-AMU3/AMU7 launch. It orbits in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) at altitudes between 16,059 km and 51,465 km with an inclination of 5.8°. It travels at approximately 11,345 km/h (3.15 km/s), completing one full orbit every 22 hours 14 minutes — that’s roughly 1.08 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.4411 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 16,059 km (perigee) and 51,465 km (apogee). It spends most of its 22 hours 14 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 5.8°, BREEZE-M R/B passes over latitudes between 5.8°N and 5.8°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.