COSMOS 1561

COSMOS 1561 is an active satellite operated by GUKOS (Russia (CIS)), launched on 1984-05-28 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia on the Strela-1M launch. With over 42 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 1,462 km and 1,484 km with an inclination of 74.0°. It travels at approximately 25,663 km/h (7.13 km/s), completing one full orbit every 115 minutes — that’s roughly 12.48 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. Orbital Radar tracks COSMOS 1561 in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

COSMOS 1561 orbits at an average altitude of 1,473 km in the uppermost reaches of Low Earth Orbit. At this altitude, orbital decay is effectively zero without active deorbiting, and coverage footprints are significantly larger than lower LEO, though at the cost of higher latency. Within ±50 km of COSMOS 1561’s average altitude, there are currently 445 active payloads and 381 tracked debris or rocket body fragments. With an inclination of 74.0°, COSMOS 1561 passes over latitudes between 74.0°N and 74.0°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 1,536 active satellites in total, of which 421 share a similar altitude band with COSMOS 1561.