BREEZE-M R/B

BREEZE-M R/B is a spent rocket body associated with Russia (CIS), launched on 2019-05-30 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on the Yamal-601 launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 5,634 km and 34,717 km with an inclination of 17.5°. It travels at approximately 13,950 km/h (3.87 km/s), completing one full orbit every 11 hours 58 minutes — that’s roughly 2.01 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.5478 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like BREEZE-M 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.

BREEZE-M R/B orbits at an average altitude of 20,176 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 BREEZE-M R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 103 active payloads and 16 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include GPS BIII-8 (PRN 21), GPS BIII-10 (PRN 13). With an inclination of 17.5°, BREEZE-M R/B passes over latitudes between 17.5°N and 17.5°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,514 active satellites in total, of which 53 share a similar altitude band with BREEZE-M R/B.