FREGAT R/B

FREGAT R/B is a spent rocket body associated with Russia (CIS), launched on 2023-12-16 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on the Arktika-M No. 2 launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 1,756 km and 38,873 km with an inclination of 63.3°. It travels at approximately 13,913 km/h (3.86 km/s), completing one full orbit every 12 hours 3 minutes — that’s roughly 1.99 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.6955 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. 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 20,315 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 2 active payloads and 12 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 63.3°, FREGAT R/B passes over latitudes between 63.3°N and 63.3°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,287 active satellites in total, of which 2 share a similar altitude band with FREGAT R/B.