- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- COSMOS 2506
- NORAD 40699
- 2015-029A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Norway
Orbit ends over the Norwegian Sea
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Kosmos-2506 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-2506, 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 Canada LIVE
Where is Kosmos-2506?
At 5:39:25 PM UTC Kosmos-2506 was over Canada (61.5° N, 129.8° W), 718 km up, moving at 7.51 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kosmos-2506?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Jun 23, 2015.
Can I see Kosmos-2506?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kosmos-2506, 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
- Central Specialized Design Bureau - Progress
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 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
- 5:39 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:39 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 61.5° N, 129.8° W
- Altitude
- 718 km
- Speed
- 7.51 km/s (27,018 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight until 6:40 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 98°
- Orbital period
- 99 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.54
- This orbit
- 702 to 714 km
- In shadow
- 22 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,970 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 8:51 AM, 8 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 8:51 AM, 8 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kosmos-2506, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Kosmos-2506 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-2506 shares its launch, 2015-029, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| COSMOS 2506 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kosmos-2506 | 702 to 714 km | 99 minutes | about 7 t | 2015 |
| Landsat 9 | 702 to 704 km | 99 minutes | about 2.7 t | 2021 |
| Landsat 8 | 702 to 703 km | 99 minutes | about 2.8 t | 2013 |
| Sentinel-1C | 695 to 697 km | 99 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2024 |
| Sentinel-1D | 695 to 697 km | 99 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2025 |
| Sentinel-1A | 693 to 695 km | 99 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2014 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 8:51 AM, 8 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "COSMOS 2506",
"OBJECT_ID": "2015-029A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T08:51:49.031136",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.54424274,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00085619,
"INCLINATION": 98.0312,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 347.6202,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 71.1859,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 289.0267,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 40699,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 60384,
"BSTAR": 0.000093430642,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000355,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}