GSLV R/B

GSLV R/B is a spent rocket body associated with India, launched on 2022-10-22 from SRI on the OneWeb L14 launch. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 559 km and 592 km with an inclination of 87.4°. It travels at approximately 27,270 km/h (7.58 km/s), completing one full orbit every 96 minutes — that’s roughly 14.97 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~3–10 years. Spent rocket bodies like GSLV 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.

GSLV R/B orbits at an average altitude of 576 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 GSLV R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 2,965 active payloads and 512 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0050, STARLINK-2112, STARLINK-2722. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 17% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 87.4°, GSLV R/B passes over latitudes between 87.4°N and 87.4°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. India operates approximately 108 active satellites in total, of which 14 share a similar altitude band with GSLV R/B.