ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B

ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2024-06-20 from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, New Zealand on the Kineis 1A-1E launch. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 476 km and 563 km with an inclination of 97.9°. It travels at approximately 27,381 km/h (7.61 km/s), completing one full orbit every 95 minutes — that’s roughly 15.16 orbits per day. Its near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit means it passes over any given point on Earth at approximately the same local solar time, ideal for consistent Earth observation lighting conditions. 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 520 km in a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), a specialised subset of LEO where the orbital plane precesses to maintain a constant angle relative to the Sun. This provides consistent lighting conditions on every pass — essential for Earth observation, weather monitoring and environmental science. Within ±50 km of ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 5,824 active payloads and 288 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 31.2% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 97.9°, ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B passes over latitudes between 97.9°N and 97.9°S, providing near-global coverage including the polar regions. Polar and near-polar orbits are used for reconnaissance, weather monitoring and Earth-observation missions that need to image every part of the planet. United States operates approximately 13,201 active satellites in total, of which 5,114 share a similar altitude band with ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B.