TITAN 34B AGENA D R/B

TITAN 34B AGENA D R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 1971-03-21 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, United States on the Jumpseat 1 launch. After more than 55 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 301 km and 36,838 km with an inclination of 63.5°. It travels at approximately 14,392 km/h (4.00 km/s), completing one full orbit every 10 hours 54 minutes — that’s roughly 2.20 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7325 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like TITAN 34B AGENA D 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.

TITAN 34B AGENA D R/B orbits at an average altitude of 18,570 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 TITAN 34B AGENA D R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 1 active payload and 21 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 63.5°, TITAN 34B AGENA D R/B passes over latitudes between 63.5°N and 63.5°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. United States operates approximately 13,206 active satellites in total.