- Military
- COSMOS 249
- NORAD 3504
- 1968-091A
- Medium Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Spain
Orbit ends over the Atlantic Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Kosmos-249 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-249, 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
Summary
Over the Atlantic Ocean LIVE
Where is Kosmos-249?
At 6:41:53 PM UTC Kosmos-249 was over the Atlantic Ocean (18.6° N, 48.4° W), 579 km up, moving at 7.91 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kosmos-249?
A satellite in medium Earth orbit, in space since Oct 20, 1968.
Can I see Kosmos-249?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kosmos-249, and nothing here estimates one.
General
- Operator
- Space Defence Force, USSR Armed Forces
- State
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
- Built by
- Machine Building Special Design Bureau
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 1.4 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, 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
- 6:41 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:41 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 18.6° N, 48.4° W
- Altitude
- 579 km
- Speed
- 7.91 km/s (28,472 km/h)
- Course
- north-east
- Light
- In sunlight until 6:55 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 62.3°
- Orbital period
- 111 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 12.97
- This orbit
- 493 to 2,051 km
- In shadow
- 32 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,720 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 10:15 PM, 20 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 10:15 PM, 20 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kosmos-249, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Kosmos-249 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-249 shares its launch, 1968-091, with 34 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB * | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB * | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB * | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB * | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB * | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB * | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 DEB | Debris |
| COSMOS 249 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.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 7, 2026, 10:15 PM, 20 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "COSMOS 249",
"OBJECT_ID": "1968-091A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T22:15:23.294016",
"MEAN_MOTION": 12.972235,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.1018376,
"INCLINATION": 62.3403,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 272.0341,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 50.555,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 318.1181,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 3504,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 73913,
"BSTAR": 0.0001027,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000269,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}