PSLV R/B

PSLV R/B is a spent rocket body associated with India, launched on 2023-09-02 from SRI on the Aditya-L1 launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 215 km and 17,026 km with an inclination of 19.1°. It travels at approximately 18,563 km/h (5.16 km/s), completing one full orbit every 5 hours 5 minutes — that’s roughly 4.73 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.5607 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like PSLV 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.

PSLV R/B orbits at an average altitude of 8,621 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 PSLV 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 19.1°, PSLV R/B passes over latitudes between 19.1°N and 19.1°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. India operates approximately 108 active satellites in total.