CZ-5 R/B

CZ-5 R/B is a spent rocket body associated with China, launched on 2023-12-15 from Wenchang, China on the Yaogan 41 launch. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 263 km and 33,435 km with an inclination of 18.9°. It travels at approximately 14,916 km/h (4.14 km/s), completing one full orbit every 9 hours 47 minutes — that’s roughly 2.45 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7143 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Spent rocket bodies like CZ-5 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.

CZ-5 R/B orbits at an average altitude of 16,849 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 CZ-5 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 18.9°, CZ-5 R/B passes over latitudes between 18.9°N and 18.9°S, concentrating coverage over equatorial and near-equatorial regions. Low-inclination orbits maximise revisit rates over specific tropical zones. China operates approximately 1,247 active satellites in total.