- Military
- COSMOS 2278
- NORAD 23087
- 1994-023A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Laccadive Sea
Orbit ends over the Indian Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Kosmos-2278 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-2278, 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 to see with the naked eye from anywhere on Earth.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
- Close approach
On Friday, Oct 30 at 10:57 PM UTC, a fragment of Fengyun 1C (NORAD 30359) was to pass within 294 m of Cosmos 2278 (NORAD 23087). The chance was about 1 in 8,000.
Summary
Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is Kosmos-2278?
At 6:20:49 PM UTC Kosmos-2278 was over the Pacific Ocean (17.6° N, 124.9° W), 852 km up, moving at 7.43 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kosmos-2278?
A satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Apr 23, 1994.
Can I see Kosmos-2278?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kosmos-2278, and nothing here estimates one.
General
- Operator
- Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoe Upravleniye
- State
- Russian Federation
- Built by
- Southern State Design Bureau
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 3.3 t
- 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, 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
- 6:20 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:20 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 17.6° N, 124.9° W
- Altitude
- 852 km
- Speed
- 7.43 km/s (26,730 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight until 7:06 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 71.1°
- Orbital period
- 101.8 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.14
- This orbit
- 836 to 848 km
- In shadow
- 35 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,190 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 5:42 AM, 12 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 5:42 AM, 12 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kosmos-2278, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- 1 reported. No close approach to Kosmos-2278 is reported for the next three 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-2278 shares its launch, 1994-023, with 5 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.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 5:42 AM, 12 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "COSMOS 2278",
"OBJECT_ID": "1994-023A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T05:42:19.731168",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.14416551,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00085868,
"INCLINATION": 71.0559,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 25.5306,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 1.5569,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 358.5579,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 23087,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 67924,
"BSTAR": 0.00017932942,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000296,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}