ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B

ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2023-12-15 from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, New Zealand on the QPS-SAR-5 launch. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 507 km and 535 km with an inclination of 42.0°. It travels at approximately 27,378 km/h (7.60 km/s), completing one full orbit every 95 minutes — that’s roughly 15.15 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~3–10 years. Spent rocket bodies like ELECTRON KICK STAGE 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.

ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B orbits at an average altitude of 521 km in the core of Low Earth Orbit, the most heavily utilised altitude band. The balance of moderate drag (limiting debris accumulation) and short signal path (enabling low-latency links and high-resolution imaging) makes this regime the default for most commercial and government missions. Within ±50 km of ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 5,561 active payloads and 296 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include STARLINK-1184, STARLINK-1276, STARLINK-1451. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 29.8% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 42.0°, ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B passes over latitudes between 42.0°N and 42.0°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. United States operates approximately 13,201 active satellites in total, of which 4,842 share a similar altitude band with ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B.