- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- COSMOS 963
- NORAD 10491
- 1977-109A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Canada
Orbit ends over the United States of America
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Kosmos-963 go over, but a receiver still asks whether it is above the horizon. Say where you are and this card answers.
Your position is rounded to about a kilometre and sent only to the Orbinauts API, to find the pass.
No brightness has been published for Kosmos-963, so it is not a naked-eye satellite and no city page carries pass times for it. Nothing here estimates one.
Seeing it
There is nothing to go outside for: it is too faint for the naked eye. What it is up there for reaches the ground as pictures and measurements, not as a light in the sky.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is Kosmos-963?
At 7:10:12 PM UTC Kosmos-963 was over the Pacific Ocean (19° S, 165.6° W), 1,201 km up, moving at 7.25 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kosmos-963?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Nov 24, 1977.
Can I see Kosmos-963?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kosmos-963, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- Military-Topographic Service of the Soviet Army
- State
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
- Built by
- NPO Applied Mechanics
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- 800 kg
- Operating
- No: its regular operations have ended
- Orbit class
- Low Earth orbit
From GCAT, Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0: the operator, the state, the manufacturer, what it is for, that a defence organisation flies it, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 7:10 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 7:10 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 19° S, 165.6° W
- Altitude
- 1,201 km
- Speed
- 7.25 km/s (26,111 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In sunlight until 7:55 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 82.9°
- Orbital period
- 109.3 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 13.18
- This orbit
- 1,178 to 1,203 km
- In shadow
- 19 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,670 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 1:48 AM, 17 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 1:48 AM, 17 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kosmos-963, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Kosmos-963 has been reported publicly in the past thirty days.
From Space-Track’s public conjunction messages; the latest report was issued Nov 8, 2026, 1:11 PM, 3 hours old. Only approaches serious enough to be reported publicly are listed: within three days and, for two bodies near the Earth, closer than a kilometre with a chance of a collision above 1 in 10,000, the level at which NASA moves the ISS.
Launched with
Kosmos-963 shares its launch, 1977-109, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| SL-8 R/B | Rocket body |
Read from the international designators of the US catalogue: the year and the launch number every piece of one launch shares. A body that has come down is no longer listed.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kosmos-963 | 1,178 to 1,203 km | 109 minutes | 800 kg | 1977 |
| Sentinel-6MF | 1,332 to 1,344 km | 112 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2020 |
| Sentinel-6B | 1,332 to 1,344 km | 112 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2025 |
| Sentinel-5P | 826 to 828 km | 101 minutes | 820 kg | 2017 |
| Suomi NPP | 825 to 829 km | 101 minutes | about 2.1 t | 2011 |
| MetOp-SG A1 | 820 to 821 km | 101 minutes | about 4 t | 2025 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 1:48 AM, 17 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "COSMOS 963",
"OBJECT_ID": "1977-109A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T01:48:48.112704",
"MEAN_MOTION": 13.17660851,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00166296,
"INCLINATION": 82.9317,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 172.8764,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 71.3925,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 81.0833,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 10491,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 35465,
"BSTAR": -0.000082653891,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -1.9e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}