SCOUT B R/B

SCOUT B R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 1965-08-10 from Wallops Flight Facility / MARS, United States on the Secor Type I S/N 2 launch. After more than 61 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 1,139 km and 2,417 km with an inclination of 69.2°. It travels at approximately 25,178 km/h (6.99 km/s), completing one full orbit every 2 hours 2 minutes — that’s roughly 11.79 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. Spent rocket bodies like SCOUT B 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.

SCOUT B R/B orbits at an average altitude of 1,778 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 SCOUT B R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 7 active payloads and 40 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 69.2°, SCOUT B R/B passes over latitudes between 69.2°N and 69.2°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. United States operates approximately 13,279 active satellites in total, of which 2 share a similar altitude band with SCOUT B R/B.