ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B

ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2026-09-11 from RLLC. As a relatively recent addition to the catalogue, its orbital elements are well-characterised. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 249 km and 511 km with an inclination of 36.0°. It travels at approximately 27,662 km/h (7.68 km/s), completing one full orbit every 92 minutes — that’s roughly 15.63 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is months to ~1 year. 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 380 km in the lower reaches of Low Earth Orbit, where atmospheric drag is significant and orbital lifetimes are measured in months to a few years. This is the busiest corridor in space — home to crewed spacecraft, rapid-revisit imaging satellites and the densest part of the Starlink constellation. Within ±50 km of ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 1,324 active payloads and 66 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ISS (ZARYA), STARLINK-1008, STARLINK-1012. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 7.3% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 36.0°, ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B passes over latitudes between 36.0°N and 36.0°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. United States operates approximately 12,945 active satellites in total, of which 1,189 share a similar altitude band with ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B.