INTERCOSMOS 25

INTERCOSMOS 25 is an active satellite operated by Russia (CIS), launched on 1991-12-18 from PKMTR. With over 35 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 439 km and 2,815 km with an inclination of 82.6°. It travels at approximately 25,414 km/h (7.06 km/s), completing one full orbit every 119 minutes — that’s roughly 12.12 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1485 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is thousands of years. Orbital Radar tracks INTERCOSMOS 25 in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

INTERCOSMOS 25 orbits at an average altitude of 1,627 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 INTERCOSMOS 25’s average altitude, there are currently 28 active payloads and 167 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 82.6°, INTERCOSMOS 25 passes over latitudes between 82.6°N and 82.6°S, providing near-global coverage including the polar regions. Polar and near-polar orbits are used for reconnaissance, weather monitoring and Earth-observation missions that need to image every part of the planet. Russia (CIS) operates approximately 1,286 active satellites in total, of which 14 share a similar altitude band with INTERCOSMOS 25.