PEGASUS R/B

PEGASUS R/B is a spent rocket body associated with United States, launched on 2026-07-03 from Kwajalein Atoll / Omelek, Marshall Islands on the Swift Reboost launch. As a relatively recent addition to the catalogue, its orbital elements are well-characterised. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 331 km and 357 km with an inclination of 20.6°. It travels at approximately 27,736 km/h (7.70 km/s), completing one full orbit every 91 minutes — that’s roughly 15.75 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is months to ~1 year. Spent rocket bodies like PEGASUS 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.

PEGASUS R/B orbits at an average altitude of 344 km in the lower reaches of Low Earth Orbit, where atmospheric drag is significant and orbital lifetimes are measured in months to a few years. This is the busiest corridor in space — home to crewed spacecraft, rapid-revisit imaging satellites and the densest part of the Starlink constellation. Within ±50 km of PEGASUS R/B’s average altitude, there are currently 1,015 active payloads and 41 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include STARLINK-1008, STARLINK-1012, STARLINK-1020. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 5.4% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 20.6°, PEGASUS R/B passes over latitudes between 20.6°N and 20.6°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 13,208 active satellites in total, of which 946 share a similar altitude band with PEGASUS R/B.