COSMOS 1581

COSMOS 1581 is an active satellite operated by Russia (CIS), launched on 1984-07-03 from PKMTR. With over 42 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 2,470 km and 38,040 km with an inclination of 67.4°. It travels at approximately 13,929 km/h (3.87 km/s), completing one full orbit every 12 hours 1 minutes — that’s roughly 2.00 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.6680 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Orbital Radar tracks COSMOS 1581 in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

COSMOS 1581 orbits at an average altitude of 20,255 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 1581’s average altitude, there are currently 6 active payloads and 19 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 67.4°, COSMOS 1581 passes over latitudes between 67.4°N and 67.4°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 1,285 active satellites in total, of which 6 share a similar altitude band with COSMOS 1581.