FREGAT R/B

FREGAT R/B is a spent rocket body associated with Russia (CIS), launched on 2022-10-22 from Vostochny, Russia on the Skif-D/Gonets launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 8,109 km and 8,122 km with an inclination of 90.0°. It travels at approximately 18,884 km/h (5.25 km/s), completing one full orbit every 4 hours 49 minutes — that’s roughly 4.98 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 8,116 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 22 active payloads and 8 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 90.0°, FREGAT R/B passes over latitudes between 90.0°N and 90.0°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.