GSLV R/B

GSLV R/B is a spent rocket body associated with India, launched on 2025-01-29 from SRI on the IRNSS-1K? 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 163 km and 32,059 km with an inclination of 20.6°. It travels at approximately 15,158 km/h (4.21 km/s), completing one full orbit every 9 hours 19 minutes — that’s roughly 2.58 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7094 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like GSLV 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.

GSLV R/B orbits at an average altitude of 16,111 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 GSLV R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 6 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 20.6°, GSLV R/B passes over latitudes between 20.6°N and 20.6°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. India operates approximately 108 active satellites in total.