ARIANE 44LP+ R/B

ARIANE 44LP+ R/B is a spent rocket body associated with France, launched on 1993-11-20 from Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana on the Solidaridad 1 launch. With over 33 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 216 km and 1,910 km with an inclination of 6.7°. It travels at approximately 26,361 km/h (7.32 km/s), completing one full orbit every 106 minutes — that’s roughly 13.52 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1139 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~500–1,000 years. Spent rocket bodies like ARIANE 44LP+ 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.

ARIANE 44LP+ R/B orbits at an average altitude of 1,063 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 ARIANE 44LP+ R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 310 active payloads and 604 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0041. With an inclination of 6.7°, ARIANE 44LP+ R/B passes over latitudes between 6.7°N and 6.7°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. France operates approximately 120 active satellites in total, of which 2 share a similar altitude band with ARIANE 44LP+ R/B.