- Communications satellite
- Military
- COSMOS 1486
- NORAD 14240
- 1983-079A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Atlantic Ocean
Orbit ends over the Bay of Campeche
In view from you
Nobody watches Kosmos-1486 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-1486, 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 reaches you from it reaches a dish or an antenna, not an eye.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
- Close approach
On Sunday, Oct 25 at 2:52 AM UTC, a fragment of CZ-6A (NORAD 56652) was to pass within 500 m of Cosmos 1486 (NORAD 14240). The chance was about 1 in 7,000.
Summary
Over the Atlantic Ocean LIVE
Where is Kosmos-1486?
At 11:33:20 AM UTC Kosmos-1486 was over the Atlantic Ocean (36.5° N, 64.7° W), 771 km up, moving at 7.48 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kosmos-1486?
A communications satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Aug 3, 1983.
Can I see Kosmos-1486?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kosmos-1486, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- Main Space Forces Directorate
- State
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
- Built by
- NPO Applied Mechanics
- What it is
- Communications 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
- 11:33 AM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 11:33 AM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 36.5° N, 64.7° W
- Altitude
- 771 km
- Speed
- 7.48 km/s (26,917 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 74.1°
- Orbital period
- 100.4 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.35
- This orbit
- 764 to 782 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,060 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 10:44 PM, 12 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 10:44 PM, 12 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kosmos-1486, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- 1 reported. No close approach to Kosmos-1486 is reported for the next three days.
From Space-Track’s public conjunction messages; the latest report was issued Nov 9, 2026, 5:39 AM, 2 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-1486 shares its launch, 1983-079, with 3 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| SL-8 R/B | Rocket body |
| SL-8 DEB * | Debris |
| SL-8 DEB | Debris |
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-1486 | 764 to 782 km | 100 minutes | 800 kg | 1983 |
| BlueWalker 3 | 443 to 453 km | 94 minutes | about 1.5 t | 2022 |
| Hispasat 30W-6 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 6.1 t | 2018 |
| Amazonas Nexus | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2023 |
| ARSAT-1 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 3 t | 2014 |
| Astra 1N | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.3 t | 2011 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 10:44 PM, 12 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "COSMOS 1486",
"OBJECT_ID": "1983-079A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T22:44:10.722048",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.34901273,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00131744,
"INCLINATION": 74.0549,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 146.0916,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 22.8052,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 137.2127,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 14240,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 26251,
"BSTAR": 0.000058791614,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000141,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}