CZ-3B R/B

CZ-3B R/B is a spent rocket body associated with China, launched on 2025-01-06 from Xichang, China on the Shi Jian 25 launch. As a relatively recent addition to the catalogue, its orbital elements are well-characterised. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 141 km and 14,692 km with an inclination of 28.4°. It travels at approximately 19,357 km/h (5.38 km/s), completing one full orbit every 4 hours 29 minutes — that’s roughly 5.36 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.5277 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like CZ-3B 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.

CZ-3B R/B orbits at an average altitude of 7,417 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 CZ-3B R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 14 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 28.4°, CZ-3B R/B passes over latitudes between 28.4°N and 28.4°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. China operates approximately 1,221 active satellites in total.