OV1-19 R/B

OV1-19 R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 1969-03-18 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, United States on the OV1-17S launch. After more than 57 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 485 km and 5,333 km with an inclination of 104.7°. It travels at approximately 23,594 km/h (6.55 km/s), completing one full orbit every 2 hours 28 minutes — that’s roughly 9.70 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.2612 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like OV1-19 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.

OV1-19 R/B orbits at an average altitude of 2,909 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 OV1-19 R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 3 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 104.7°, OV1-19 R/B passes over latitudes between 104.7°N and 104.7°S, providing near-global coverage including the polar regions. Polar and near-polar orbits are used for reconnaissance, weather monitoring and Earth-observation missions that need to image every part of the planet. United States operates approximately 13,206 active satellites in total.