TLV R/B

TLV R/B is a spent rocket body associated with South Korea, launched on 2023-12-04 from JJSLA on the S-STEP launch. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 402 km and 550 km with an inclination of 46.9°. It travels at approximately 27,468 km/h (7.63 km/s), completing one full orbit every 94 minutes — that’s roughly 15.30 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~1–3 years. Spent rocket bodies like TLV 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.

TLV R/B orbits at an average altitude of 476 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 TLV R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 8,225 active payloads and 209 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include STARLINK-1017, STARLINK-1039, STARLINK-1047. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 47% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 46.9°, TLV R/B passes over latitudes between 46.9°N and 46.9°S, covering the tropical and temperate zones where most of the world’s population resides. Low-to-mid inclination orbits are efficient to reach from equatorial and mid-latitude launch sites. South Korea operates approximately 51 active satellites in total, of which 11 share a similar altitude band with TLV R/B.