DIAMANT R/B

DIAMANT R/B is a spent rocket body associated with France, launched on 1965-11-26 from Hammaguir, Algeria on the A-1 launch. After more than 61 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 509 km and 1,360 km with an inclination of 34.2°. It travels at approximately 26,592 km/h (7.39 km/s), completing one full orbit every 104 minutes — that’s roughly 13.88 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~100–500 years. Spent rocket bodies like DIAMANT 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.

DIAMANT R/B orbits at an average altitude of 935 km in the upper LEO band, where atmospheric drag is negligible and objects can persist for centuries to millennia. This altitude is used by broadband constellations like OneWeb and by scientific missions requiring stable orbits far from the densest debris bands. Within ±50 km of DIAMANT R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 388 active payloads and 1,343 tracked debris or rocket body fragments. With an inclination of 34.2°, DIAMANT R/B passes over latitudes between 34.2°N and 34.2°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. France operates approximately 124 active satellites in total, of which 2 share a similar altitude band with DIAMANT R/B.