CERTIFICATE OF RE-ENTRYOrbital Register™ · by Orbital Radar™
Entry no.
1991-0538
MOLNIYA 1-50
MOLNIYA 1-50 (NORAD 12556) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 14 December 1991, after 10 years, 5 months in orbit.
Official date
NORAD number
12556
International designator
1981-060A
Object type
Spacecraft
Country
USSR
Launched
24 Jun 1981Plesetsk Cosmodrome
Re-entered (UTC)
14 Dec 1991UTC calendar day
Time in orbit
10 years, 5 months3,825 days
How it ended
Re-entered (natural decay)
Latitude range
63.5°N to 63.5°SFinal inclination 63.5°
Mass
1,650 kg
Operator
GUKOS
Built by
NPO PM
Bus
Molniya-1
Programme
Molniya-1K
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 63.5°, allowed a re-entry anywhere between 63.5°N and 63.5°S.
Life in orbit
10 years, 5 monthsMOLNIYA 1-50’s lowest and highest points above Earth, week by week, from its tracking history.
From the same launch
1981-060
Entered in the Orbital Register™, founding volume, September 2026.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1991-0538
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1991-0538
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.