ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR R/B

ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 1997-09-04 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the GE 3 launch. With over 29 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 289 km and 36,044 km with an inclination of 18.8°. It travels at approximately 14,510 km/h (4.03 km/s), completing one full orbit every 10 hours 38 minutes — that’s roughly 2.26 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7286 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR 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.

ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR R/B orbits at an average altitude of 18,167 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 ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 2 active payloads and 24 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 18.8°, ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR R/B passes over latitudes between 18.8°N and 18.8°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. United States operates approximately 12,858 active satellites in total.