- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- COSMOS 2503
- NORAD 40420
- 2015-009A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Canada
Orbit ends over Canada
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Kosmos-2503 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-2503, 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 it is up there for reaches the ground as pictures and measurements, not as a light in the sky.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is Kosmos-2503?
At 5:36:01 PM UTC Kosmos-2503 was over the Pacific Ocean (14.7° N, 118.1° W), 540 km up, moving at 7.6 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kosmos-2503?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Feb 27, 2015.
Can I see Kosmos-2503?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kosmos-2503, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- Aerospace Defence Forces
- State
- Russian Federation
- Built by
- Arsenal Design Bureau
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 3.7 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, 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
- 5:36 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:36 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 14.7° N, 118.1° W
- Altitude
- 540 km
- Speed
- 7.6 km/s (27,353 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight until 6:15 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 97.8°
- Orbital period
- 95.6 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 15.07
- This orbit
- 531 to 555 km
- In shadow
- 33 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,640 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 8:09 PM, 21 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 8:09 PM, 21 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kosmos-2503, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Kosmos-2503 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kosmos-2503 | 531 to 555 km | 96 minutes | about 3.7 t | 2015 |
| PAZ | 507 to 510 km | 95 minutes | about 1.4 t | 2018 |
| WorldView-3 | 612 to 615 km | 97 minutes | about 2.8 t | 2014 |
| SAOCOM 1A | 622 to 624 km | 97 minutes | about 3 t | 2018 |
| ALOS-2 | 630 to 632 km | 97 minutes | about 2.1 t | 2014 |
| SMAP | 681 to 683 km | 98 minutes | 944 kg | 2015 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 7, 2026, 8:09 PM, 21 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "COSMOS 2503",
"OBJECT_ID": "2015-009A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T20:09:14.835456",
"MEAN_MOTION": 15.06933219,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00172551,
"INCLINATION": 97.8131,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 10.8242,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 122.5,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 237.7897,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 40420,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 64056,
"BSTAR": 0.00012884602,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00001866,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}