CERTIFICATE OF RE-ENTRYOrbital Register™ · by Orbital Radar™
Entry no.
1969-0040
COSMOS 261
COSMOS 261 (NORAD 3624) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 12 February 1969, after 1 month in orbit.
Official date
NORAD number
3624
International designator
1968-117A
Object type
Spacecraft
Country
USSR
Launched
19 Dec 1968Plesetsk Cosmodrome
Re-entered (UTC)
12 Feb 1969UTC calendar day
Time in orbit
1 month55 days
How it ended
Re-entered (natural decay)
Latitude range
71.0°N to 71.0°SFinal inclination 71.0°
Mass
335 kg
Operator
Southern SDB
Built by
Southern SDB
Bus
DS-U2
Programme
DS-U2-GK
Where it came down
Latitude band its orbit allowedExact position not recorded
No position was recorded for this re-entry. Its final orbit, inclined at 71.0°, allowed a re-entry anywhere between 71.0°N and 71.0°S.
Life in orbit
1 monthCOSMOS 261’s lowest and highest points above Earth, week by week, from its tracking history.
From the same launch
1968-117
Entered in the Orbital Register™, founding volume, September 2026.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1969-0040
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1969-0040
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.