COSMOS 252

COSMOS 252 is an active satellite operated by PKO (Russia (CIS)), launched on 1968-11-01 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on the I2P launch. After more than 58 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 529 km and 2,087 km with an inclination of 62.3°. It travels at approximately 25,937 km/h (7.20 km/s), completing one full orbit every 112 minutes — that’s roughly 12.88 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.1014 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 COSMOS 252 in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

COSMOS 252 orbits at an average altitude of 1,308 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 252’s average altitude, there are currently 20 active payloads and 387 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 62.3°, COSMOS 252 passes over latitudes between 62.3°N and 62.3°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 1,552 active satellites in total, of which 5 share a similar altitude band with COSMOS 252.