CERTIFICATE OF RE-ENTRYOrbital Register™ · by Orbital Radar™
Entry no.
2002-0268
COSMOS 426
COSMOS 426 (NORAD 5281) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 11 May 2002, after 30 years, 11 months in orbit.
Official date
NORAD number
5281
International designator
1971-052A
Object type
Spacecraft
Country
USSR
Launched
4 Jun 1971Plesetsk Cosmodrome
Re-entered (UTC)
11 May 2002UTC calendar day
Time in orbit
30 years, 11 months11,299 days
How it ended
Re-entered (natural decay)
Latitude range
73.9°N to 73.9°SFinal inclination 73.9°
Mass
298 kg
Operator
Southern SDB
Built by
Southern SDB
Bus
DS-U2
Programme
DS-U2-K
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 73.9°, allowed a re-entry anywhere between 73.9°N and 73.9°S.
Life in orbit
30 years, 11 monthsCOSMOS 426’s lowest and highest points above Earth, week by week, from its tracking history.
Also ended on 11 May 2002
2 entriesFrom the same launch
1971-052
Entered in the Orbital Register™, founding volume, September 2026.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/2002-0268
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.
Record version 1 · No corrections · orbitalradar.com/register/2002-0268
© 2026 Orbital Radar. Cite this entry by its number; the register itself may not be copied.