- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- COSMOS 1803
- NORAD 17177
- 1986-094A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Russia
Orbit ends over Russia
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Kosmos-1803 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-1803, 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 it is up there for reaches the ground as pictures and measurements, not as a light in the sky.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over Antarctica LIVE
Where is Kosmos-1803?
At 7:04:47 PM UTC Kosmos-1803 was over Antarctica (81.3° S, 110.1° W), 1,531 km up, moving at 7.1 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kosmos-1803?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Dec 2, 1986.
Can I see Kosmos-1803?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kosmos-1803, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- Military-Topographic Service of the Soviet Army
- State
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
- Built by
- NPO Applied Mechanics
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 1.6 t
- Operating
- 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
- 7:04 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 7:04 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 81.3° S, 110.1° W
- Altitude
- 1,531 km
- Speed
- 7.1 km/s (25,556 km/h)
- Course
- north-east
- Light
- In sunlight until 8:10 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 82.6°
- Orbital period
- 116 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 12.42
- This orbit
- 1,494 to 1,501 km
- In shadow
- 15 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 3,050 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 8:34 AM, 10 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 8:34 AM, 10 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kosmos-1803, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Kosmos-1803 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-1803 shares its launch, 1986-094, with 3 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
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-1803 | 1,494 to 1,501 km | 116 minutes | about 1.6 t | 1986 |
| Sentinel-6MF | 1,332 to 1,344 km | 112 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2020 |
| Sentinel-6B | 1,332 to 1,344 km | 112 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2025 |
| Sentinel-5P | 826 to 828 km | 101 minutes | 820 kg | 2017 |
| Suomi NPP | 825 to 829 km | 101 minutes | about 2.1 t | 2011 |
| MetOp-SG A1 | 820 to 821 km | 101 minutes | about 4 t | 2025 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 8:34 AM, 10 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "COSMOS 1803",
"OBJECT_ID": "1986-094A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T08:34:30.803808",
"MEAN_MOTION": 12.41546909,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.0004238,
"INCLINATION": 82.6025,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 282.4514,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 117.3373,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 1.9073,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 17177,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 80984,
"BSTAR": -0.000034915324,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 5e-8,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}