ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B

ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2009-04-04 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, United States on the Wideband Global Satcom 2 launch. After 17 years in orbit, it continues to be tracked by global surveillance networks. It orbits in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) at altitudes between 536 km and 62,267 km with an inclination of 19.9°. It travels at approximately 11,695 km/h (3.25 km/s), completing one full orbit every 20 hours 18 minutes — that’s roughly 1.18 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.8171 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like ATLAS 5 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 5 CENTAUR R/B follows a Highly Elliptical Orbit, sweeping between 536 km (perigee) and 62,267 km (apogee). It spends most of its 20 hours 18 minutes orbital period near apogee, effectively loitering over a region of interest before rapidly sweeping through perigee — a profile used for high-latitude communications (Molniya orbits), early-warning systems and magnetospheric science. With an inclination of 19.9°, ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R/B passes over latitudes between 19.9°N and 19.9°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. United States operates approximately 13,201 active satellites in total.