LRE

LRE is an active satellite operated by Japan, launched on 2001-08-29 from TNSTA. With over 25 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 214 km and 31,008 km with an inclination of 28.3°. It travels at approximately 15,330 km/h (4.26 km/s), completing one full orbit every 9 hours 1 minutes — that’s roughly 2.66 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7004 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Orbital Radar tracks LRE in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

LRE orbits at an average altitude of 15,611 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 LRE’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 9 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 28.3°, LRE passes over latitudes between 28.3°N and 28.3°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. Japan operates approximately 189 active satellites in total.