CERTIFICATE OF RE-ENTRYOrbital Register™ · by Orbital Radar™
Entry no.
1971-0271
COSMOS 421
COSMOS 421 (NORAD 5232) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 8 November 1971, after 5 months in orbit.
Official date
NORAD number
5232
International designator
1971-044A
Object type
Spacecraft
Country
USSR
Launched
19 May 1971Plesetsk Cosmodrome
Re-entered (UTC)
8 Nov 1971UTC calendar day
Time in orbit
5 months173 days
How it ended
Re-entered (natural decay)
Latitude range
70.9°N to 70.9°SFinal inclination 70.9°
Mass
200 kg
Operator
PVO
Built by
Southern SDB
Bus
DS-P1
Programme
DS-P1-Yu A
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 70.9°, allowed a re-entry anywhere between 70.9°N and 70.9°S.
Life in orbit
5 monthsCOSMOS 421’s lowest and highest points above Earth, week by week, from its tracking history.
From the same launch
1971-044
Entered in the Orbital Register™, founding volume, September 2026.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1971-0271
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1971-0271
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.