PSLV R/B

PSLV R/B is a spent rocket body associated with India, launched on 2011-07-15 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India on the GSAT-12 launch. After 15 years in orbit, it continues to be tracked by global surveillance networks. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 288 km and 18,556 km with an inclination of 17.9°. It travels at approximately 18,086 km/h (5.02 km/s), completing one full orbit every 5 hours 29 minutes — that’s roughly 4.37 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.5784 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like PSLV 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.

PSLV R/B orbits at an average altitude of 9,422 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 PSLV R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 12 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 17.9°, PSLV R/B passes over latitudes between 17.9°N and 17.9°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. India operates approximately 101 active satellites in total.