Sterkh No. 12L

LIVE
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Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/35866

  • Communications satellite
  • STERKH 2
  • NORAD 35866
  • 2009-049B
  • Low Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where Sterkh No. 12L is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over Australia

Orbit ends over the Indian Ocean

Sunlit since

Enters the Earth’s shadow

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Sterkh No. 12L 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 Sterkh No. 12L, 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

  1. Launch

    Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source

Summary

Over Antarctica LIVE

Where is Sterkh No. 12L?

At 6:31:53 PM UTC Sterkh No. 12L was over Antarctica (78.7° S, 76.7° E), 839 km up, moving at 7.43 km/s and in sunlight.

What is Sterkh No. 12L?

A communications satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Sep 17, 2009.

Can I see Sterkh No. 12L?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Sterkh No. 12L, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.

General

Operator
PO Polyot, Filial GKNPTs Khrunichev
State
Russian Federation
Built by
PO Polyot, Filial GKNPTs Khrunichev
What it is
Communications satellite
Launched
Mass
171 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, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.

Latest orbital data

Position received
6:31 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
6:31 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
78.7° S, 76.7° E
Altitude
839 km
Speed
7.43 km/s (26,759 km/h)
Course
south-west
Light
In sunlight until 7:32 PM UTC
Inclination
98.7°
Orbital period
101.1 minutes
Orbits per day
14.24
This orbit
807 to 811 km
In shadow
25 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 2,170 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 7, 2026, 9:03 PM, 21 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 9:03 PM, 21 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Sterkh No. 12L, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to Sterkh No. 12L 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.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

Launched with

Sterkh No. 12L shares its launch, 2009-049, with 5 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.

BodyWhat it is
METEOR-MEarth-watching satellite
TATIANA 2Satellite
UGATUSATEarth-watching satellite
BLITSEarth-watching satellite
BLITS DEBDebris

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

SatelliteTypical altitudeOrbital periodMassIn space since
Sterkh No. 12L807 to 811 km101 minutes171 kg2009
BlueWalker 3443 to 453 km94 minutesabout 1.5 t2022
Hispasat 30W-635,786 to 35,786 km1,436 minutesabout 6.1 t2018
Amazonas Nexus35,786 to 35,786 km1,436 minutesabout 4.1 t2023
ARSAT-135,786 to 35,786 km1,436 minutesabout 3 t2014
Astra 1N35,786 to 35,786 km1,436 minutesabout 5.3 t2011

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 7, 2026, 9:03 PM, 21 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "STERKH 2",
  "OBJECT_ID": "2009-049B",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-07T21:03:54.804096",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 14.24005567,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.0002402,
  "INCLINATION": 98.7369,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 271.9815,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 206.7413,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 153.3642,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 35866,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 89009,
  "BSTAR": 0.000065031,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000105,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}