COSMOS 2242

COSMOS 2242 is an active satellite operated by GRU (Russia (CIS)), launched on 1993-04-16 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia on the Tselina-R launch. With over 33 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 565 km and 586 km with an inclination of 82.5°. It travels at approximately 27,270 km/h (7.58 km/s), completing one full orbit every 96 minutes — that’s roughly 14.97 orbits per day. At its current altitude, the estimated orbital lifetime before atmospheric re-entry is ~3–10 years. Orbital Radar tracks COSMOS 2242 in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

COSMOS 2242 orbits at an average altitude of 576 km in the core of Low Earth Orbit, the most heavily utilised altitude band. The balance of moderate drag (limiting debris accumulation) and short signal path (enabling low-latency links and high-resolution imaging) makes this regime the default for most commercial and government missions. Within ±50 km of COSMOS 2242’s average altitude, there are currently 1,090 active payloads and 574 tracked debris or rocket body fragments — notable neighbours include ONEWEB-0050, STARLINK-3005, STARLINK-3055. This makes it one of the more crowded altitude bands, containing roughly 5.8% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 82.5°, COSMOS 2242 passes over latitudes between 82.5°N and 82.5°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 1,547 active satellites in total, of which 32 share a similar altitude band with COSMOS 2242.