CERTIFICATE OF RE-ENTRYOrbital Register™ · by Orbital Radar™
Entry no.
1993-0209
MOLNIYA 1-51
MOLNIYA 1-51 (NORAD 12959) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 2 November 1993, after 11 years, 11 months in orbit.
Official date
NORAD number
12959
International designator
1981-113A
Object type
Spacecraft
Country
USSR
Launched
17 Nov 1981Plesetsk Cosmodrome
Re-entered (UTC)
2 Nov 1993UTC calendar day
Time in orbit
11 years, 11 months4,368 days
How it ended
Re-entered (natural decay)
Latitude range
63.3°N to 63.3°SFinal inclination 63.3°
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 63.3°, allowed a re-entry anywhere between 63.3°N and 63.3°S.
Life in orbit
11 years, 11 monthsMOLNIYA 1-51’s lowest and highest points above Earth, week by week, from its tracking history.
From the same launch
1981-113
Entered in the Orbital Register™, founding volume, September 2026.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1993-0209
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/1993-0209
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.