CERTIFICATE OF RE-ENTRYOrbital Register™ · by Orbital Radar™
Entry no.
1979-0076
COSMOS 461
COSMOS 461 (NORAD 5643) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 21 February 1979, after 7 years, 2 months in orbit.
Official date
NORAD number
5643
International designator
1971-105A
Object type
Spacecraft
Country
USSR
Launched
2 Dec 1971Plesetsk Cosmodrome
Re-entered (UTC)
21 Feb 1979UTC calendar day
Time in orbit
7 years, 2 months2,638 days
How it ended
Re-entered (natural decay)
Latitude range
69.2°N to 69.2°SFinal inclination 69.2°
Mass
330 kg
Operator
Southern SDB
Built by
Southern SDB
Bus
DS-U2
Programme
DS-U2-MT
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 69.2°, allowed a re-entry anywhere between 69.2°N and 69.2°S.
Life in orbit
7 years, 2 monthsCOSMOS 461’s lowest and highest points above Earth, week by week, from its tracking history.
Also ended on 21 Feb 1979
2 entriesFrom the same launch
1971-105
Entered in the Orbital Register™, founding volume, September 2026.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1979-0076
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1979-0076
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.