ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B

ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2026-01-22 from RLLC on the Open Cosmos launch. As a relatively recent addition to the catalogue, its orbital elements are well-characterised. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 287 km and 932 km with an inclination of 89.0°. It travels at approximately 27,204 km/h (7.56 km/s), completing one full orbit every 97 minutes — that’s roughly 14.86 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~10–25 years. Spent rocket bodies like ELECTRON KICK STAGE 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.

ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B orbits at an average altitude of 610 km in the mid-LEO band, where atmospheric drag is minimal but radiation exposure remains manageable. Objects at this altitude persist for decades to centuries, making debris mitigation critical. This regime is popular for remote sensing constellations and scientific instruments that need stable, long-duration orbits. Within ±50 km of ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 1,603 active payloads and 703 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0050, STARLINK-3005, STARLINK-3090. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 9.2% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 89.0°, ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B passes over latitudes between 89.0°N and 89.0°S, providing near-global coverage including the polar regions. Polar and near-polar orbits are used for reconnaissance, weather monitoring and Earth-observation missions that need to image every part of the planet. United States operates approximately 12,413 active satellites in total, of which 1,090 share a similar altitude band with ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B.