- Navigation satellite
- Military
- COSMOS 971
- NORAD 10536
- 1977-122A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Pacific Ocean
Orbit ends over the Coral Sea
In view from you
Nobody watches Kosmos-971 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-971, 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 far too high and too faint for the naked eye. What you notice of it is a position fix, and the card above says whether it is above your horizon to give you one.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Southern Ocean LIVE
Where is Kosmos-971?
At 6:44:19 PM UTC Kosmos-971 was over the Southern Ocean (68.4° S, 152.2° E), 1,004 km up, moving at 7.35 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kosmos-971?
A navigation satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Dec 23, 1977.
Can I see Kosmos-971?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kosmos-971, and nothing here estimates one; receivers on the ground use its signals instead, whenever it is above their horizon.
General
- Operator
- Soviet Navy
- State
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
- Built by
- Omsk Aviation Plant
- What it is
- Navigation 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
- 6:44 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:44 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 68.4° S, 152.2° E
- Altitude
- 1,004 km
- Speed
- 7.35 km/s (26,474 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 82.9°
- Orbital period
- 104.8 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 13.73
- This orbit
- 969 to 1,000 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,410 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 12:36 AM, 18 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 12:36 AM, 18 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kosmos-971, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Kosmos-971 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-971 shares its launch, 1977-122, 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.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 12:36 AM, 18 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "COSMOS 971",
"OBJECT_ID": "1977-122A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T00:36:03.456864",
"MEAN_MOTION": 13.73438543,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00207958,
"INCLINATION": 82.9333,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 140.0021,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 345.9215,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 170.3284,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 10536,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 44888,
"BSTAR": 0.000078929859,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 8.8e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}