Ekspress MD-2

LIVE
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Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/38745

  • Communications satellite
  • EXPRESS MD2
  • NORAD 38745
  • 2012-044B
  • Medium Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where Ekspress MD-2 is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over the Pacific Ocean

Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean

In the Earth’s shadow since

Back in sunlight

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Ekspress MD-2 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 Ekspress MD-2, 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 the Yellow Sea LIVE

Where is Ekspress MD-2?

At 6:52:00 PM UTC Ekspress MD-2 was over the Yellow Sea (36.7° N, 122.4° E), 1,040 km up, moving at 7.53 km/s and in the Earth’s shadow.

What is Ekspress MD-2?

A communications satellite in medium Earth orbit, in space since Aug 6, 2012.

Can I see Ekspress MD-2?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Ekspress MD-2, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.

General

Operator
Russian Satellite Communications Co.
State
Russian Federation
Built by
Khrunichev State Research and Production Center
What it is
Communications satellite
Launched
Mass
about 1.1 t
Operating
No: its regular operations have ended
Orbit class
Medium 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
6:52 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
6:52 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
36.7° N, 122.4° E
Altitude
1,040 km
Speed
7.53 km/s (27,090 km/h)
Course
south-east
Light
In the Earth’s shadow until 6:58 PM UTC
Inclination
49.8°
Orbital period
114.8 minutes
Orbits per day
12.55
This orbit
257 to 2,635 km
In shadow
31 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 2,460 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 8, 2026, 6:34 AM, 12 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 6:34 AM, 12 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Ekspress MD-2, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to Ekspress MD-2 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

Ekspress MD-2 shares its launch, 2012-044, with 3 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.

BodyWhat it is
BREEZE-M R/BRocket body
BREEZE-M DEBDebris
BREEZE-M 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
Ekspress MD-2257 to 2,635 km115 minutesabout 1.1 t2012
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 8, 2026, 6:34 AM, 12 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "EXPRESS MD2",
  "OBJECT_ID": "2012-044B",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-08T06:34:48.617184",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 12.54584418,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.15191625,
  "INCLINATION": 49.8254,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 313.8355,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 205.6815,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 146.032,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 38745,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 57881,
  "BSTAR": 0.00084544279,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00050911,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0.000004972042
}