COSMOS 909

COSMOS 909 is an active satellite operated by Russia (CIS), launched on 1977-05-19 from PKMTR. With over 49 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 994 km and 2,101 km with an inclination of 65.9°. It travels at approximately 25,542 km/h (7.09 km/s), completing one full orbit every 117 minutes — that’s roughly 12.30 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. Orbital Radar tracks COSMOS 909 in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

COSMOS 909 orbits at an average altitude of 1,548 km in Medium Earth Orbit, the region between LEO and GEO (2,000–35,786 km). MEO’s higher altitude gives each satellite a much larger ground footprint than LEO, meaning fewer spacecraft are needed for global coverage — but signal latency is higher and radiation from the Van Allen belts is a significant design constraint. Within ±50 km of COSMOS 909’s average altitude, there are currently 52 active payloads and 252 tracked debris or rocket body fragments. This is a relatively sparse altitude band, containing less than 1% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 65.9°, COSMOS 909 passes over latitudes between 65.9°N and 65.9°S, covering most populated land masses in both hemispheres. This mid-inclination band balances global coverage with efficient launch energy requirements. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,286 active satellites in total, of which 39 share a similar altitude band with COSMOS 909.