- Navigation satellite
- Military
- COSMOS 1491 (GLONASS)
- NORAD 14259
- 1983-084B
- Medium Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Chile
Orbit ends over the Indian Ocean
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Kosmos-1491 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-1491, 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 Indian Ocean LIVE
Where is Kosmos-1491?
At 11:33:06 AM UTC Kosmos-1491 was over the Indian Ocean (38.8° S, 32.8° E), 18,948 km up, moving at 3.97 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kosmos-1491?
A navigation satellite in medium Earth orbit, in space since Aug 10, 1983.
Can I see Kosmos-1491?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kosmos-1491, and nothing here estimates one; receivers on the ground use its signals instead, whenever it is above their horizon.
General
- Operator
- Main Space Forces Directorate
- 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
- about 1.3 t
- Operating
- Orbit class
- Medium 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
- 38.8° S, 32.8° E
- Altitude
- 18,948 km
- Speed
- 3.97 km/s (14,285 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight until 4:02 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 65.1°
- Orbital period
- 668.4 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 2.15
- This orbit
- 18,896 to 18,994 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,300 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 7:11 PM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 7:11 PM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kosmos-1491, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Kosmos-1491 has been reported publicly in the past thirty 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-1491 shares its launch, 1983-084, with 5 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| COSMOS 1490 (GLONASS) | Navigation satellite |
| COSMOS 1492 (GLONASS) | Satellite |
| SL-12 R/B(2) | Rocket body |
| SL-12 R/B(AUX MOTOR) | Rocket body |
| SL-12 R/B(AUX MOTOR) | 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 7, 2026, 7:11 PM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "COSMOS 1491 (GLONASS)",
"OBJECT_ID": "1983-084B",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T19:11:21.718752",
"MEAN_MOTION": 2.15434719,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00195128,
"INCLINATION": 65.1203,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 53.0406,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 300.6965,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 58.7304,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 14259,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 33922,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -6.9e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}