H-2A R/B

H-2A R/B is a spent rocket body associated with Japan, launched on 2017-06-01 from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan on the QZSS 2 launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 240 km and 33,757 km with an inclination of 31.4°. It travels at approximately 14,868 km/h (4.13 km/s), completing one full orbit every 9 hours 53 minutes — that’s roughly 2.43 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7171 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like H-2A 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.

H-2A R/B orbits at an average altitude of 16,999 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 H-2A R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 0 active payloads and 10 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 31.4°, H-2A R/B passes over latitudes between 31.4°N and 31.4°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 208 active satellites in total.