- Communications satellite
- Military
- COSMOS 1538
- NORAD 14759
- 1984-019A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Atlantic Ocean
Orbit ends over the Gulf of Saint Lawrence
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Kosmos-1538 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-1538, 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 Friday, Oct 16 at 7:32 AM UTC, a fragment of Delta 1 (NORAD 9619) was to pass within 386 m of Cosmos 1538 (NORAD 14759). The chance was about 1 in 3,000.
Summary
Over Antarctica LIVE
Where is Kosmos-1538?
At 11:34:05 AM UTC Kosmos-1538 was over Antarctica (74.1° S, 61.3° E), 814 km up, moving at 7.44 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kosmos-1538?
A communications satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Feb 21, 1984.
Can I see Kosmos-1538?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kosmos-1538, 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
- 11:34 AM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 11:34 AM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 74.1° S, 61.3° E
- Altitude
- 814 km
- Speed
- 7.44 km/s (26,784 km/h)
- Course
- east
- Light
- In sunlight until 11:50 AM UTC
- Inclination
- 74°
- Orbital period
- 100.4 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.35
- This orbit
- 760 to 788 km
- In shadow
- 34 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,130 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 8:55 PM, 14 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 8:55 PM, 14 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kosmos-1538, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- 1 reported. No close approach to Kosmos-1538 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-1538 shares its launch, 1984-019, 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-1538 | 760 to 788 km | 100 minutes | 800 kg | 1984 |
| 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, 8:55 PM, 14 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "COSMOS 1538",
"OBJECT_ID": "1984-019A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T20:55:31.189728",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.34551325,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00198113,
"INCLINATION": 74.0418,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 14.3899,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 129.8925,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 230.3973,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 14759,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 23371,
"BSTAR": 0.00005370928,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000126,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}