- Communications satellite
- Military
- COSMOS 1857
- NORAD 18118
- 1987-051F
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Atlantic Ocean
Orbit ends over the Atlantic Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches Kosmos-1857 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-1857, 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
Summary
Over the Barents Sea LIVE
Where is Kosmos-1857?
At 6:32:08 PM UTC Kosmos-1857 was over the Barents Sea (69.4° N, 41.2° E), 1,478 km up, moving at 7.12 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kosmos-1857?
A communications satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Jun 16, 1987.
Can I see Kosmos-1857?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kosmos-1857, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- Upravleniye Nachalnika Kosmicheskikh Sredstv
- 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
- 60 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
- 6:32 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:32 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 69.4° N, 41.2° E
- Altitude
- 1,478 km
- Speed
- 7.12 km/s (25,639 km/h)
- Course
- north-east
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 74°
- Orbital period
- 114.8 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 12.54
- This orbit
- 1,414 to 1,475 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,990 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 6:38 AM, 11 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 6:38 AM, 11 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kosmos-1857, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Kosmos-1857 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-1857 shares its launch, 1987-051, with 8 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| COSMOS 1852 | Communications satellite |
| COSMOS 1853 | Communications satellite |
| COSMOS 1854 | Communications satellite |
| COSMOS 1855 | Communications satellite |
| COSMOS 1856 | Communications satellite |
| COSMOS 1858 | Communications satellite |
| COSMOS 1859 | Communications satellite |
| SL-8 R/B | 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kosmos-1857 | 1,414 to 1,475 km | 115 minutes | 60 kg | 1987 |
| 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, 6:38 AM, 11 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "COSMOS 1857",
"OBJECT_ID": "1987-051F",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T06:38:39.198048",
"MEAN_MOTION": 12.5427613,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00392248,
"INCLINATION": 74.0036,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 318.6453,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 307.6411,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 52.1085,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 18118,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 80384,
"BSTAR": 0.00012152327,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 3e-8,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}