ELEKTRON KICK STAGE R/B

ELEKTRON KICK STAGE R/B is a spent rocket body associated with Japan, launched on 2026-09-26 from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, New Zealand. As a relatively recent addition to the catalogue, its orbital elements are well-characterised. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 541 km and 566 km with an inclination of 37.9°. It travels at approximately 27,313 km/h (7.59 km/s), completing one full orbit every 96 minutes — that’s roughly 15.04 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~3–10 years. Spent rocket bodies like ELEKTRON 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.

ELEKTRON KICK STAGE R/B orbits at an average altitude of 554 km in the core of Low Earth Orbit, the most heavily utilised altitude band. The balance of moderate drag (limiting debris accumulation) and short signal path (enabling low-latency links and high-resolution imaging) makes this regime the default for most commercial and government missions. Within ±50 km of ELEKTRON KICK STAGE R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 1,539 active payloads and 421 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include STARLINK-1184, STARLINK-1276, ONEWEB-0050. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 8.2% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 37.9°, ELEKTRON KICK STAGE R/B passes over latitudes between 37.9°N and 37.9°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. Japan operates approximately 208 active satellites in total, of which 58 share a similar altitude band with ELEKTRON KICK STAGE R/B.