- Military
- COSMOS 1217
- NORAD 12032
- 1980-085A
- Highly elliptical orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Atlantic Ocean
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches Kosmos-1217 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-1217, 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 to see with the naked eye from anywhere on Earth.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the South China Sea LIVE
Where is Kosmos-1217?
At 12:42:35 AM UTC Kosmos-1217 was over the South China Sea (21.6° N, 119.7° E), 28,546 km up, moving at 2.79 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kosmos-1217?
A satellite in a highly elliptical orbit, in space since Oct 24, 1980.
Can I see Kosmos-1217?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kosmos-1217, and nothing here estimates one.
General
- Operator
- Proto-Vozdhusnoy Oborony
- State
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
- Built by
- NPO Lavochkin
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 1.3 t
- Operating
- Orbit class
- Highly elliptical orbit
From GCAT, Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0: the operator, the state, the manufacturer, 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
- 12:42 AM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 12:42 AM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 21.6° N, 119.7° E
- Altitude
- 28,546 km
- Speed
- 2.79 km/s (10,058 km/h)
- Course
- north-west
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 70.2°
- Orbital period
- 716.7 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 2.01
- This orbit
- 4,712 to 35,588 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,740 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 6, 2026, 11:39 PM, 2 days old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 6, 2026, 11:39 PM, 2 days old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kosmos-1217, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Kosmos-1217 has been reported publicly in the past thirty days.
From Space-Track’s public conjunction messages; the latest report was issued Nov 8, 2026, 2:43 PM, 9 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.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 6, 2026, 11:39 PM, 2 days old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "COSMOS 1217",
"OBJECT_ID": "1980-085A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-06T23:39:56.918016",
"MEAN_MOTION": 2.00919546,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.58195708,
"INCLINATION": 70.1601,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 170.5379,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 234.2684,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 56.8784,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 12032,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 28508,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000188,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}