SL-14 R/B

SL-14 R/B is a spent rocket body associated with Russia (CIS), launched on 1979-02-12 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia on the Okean-E NKh No. 1 launch. With over 47 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 579 km and 603 km with an inclination of 82.5°. It travels at approximately 27,240 km/h (7.57 km/s), completing one full orbit every 97 minutes — that’s roughly 14.92 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~3–10 years. Spent rocket bodies like SL-14 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.

SL-14 R/B orbits at an average altitude of 591 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 SL-14 R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 1,537 active payloads and 663 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 8.2% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 82.5°, SL-14 R/B passes over latitudes between 82.5°N and 82.5°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. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,514 active satellites in total, of which 33 share a similar altitude band with SL-14 R/B.