- Communications satellite
- Military
- MERIDIAN 9
- NORAD 45254
- 2020-015A
- Highly elliptical orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Southern Ocean
Orbit ends over the Southern Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches Meridian-M No. 19L 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 Meridian-M No. 19L, 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
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over Russia LIVE
Where is Meridian-M No. 19L?
At 5:37:17 PM UTC Meridian-M No. 19L was over Russia (65.5° N, 86.1° E), 38,104 km up, moving at 1.71 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Meridian-M No. 19L?
A communications satellite in a highly elliptical orbit, in space since Feb 20, 2020.
Can I see Meridian-M No. 19L?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Meridian-M No. 19L, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- Aerospace Defence Forces
- State
- Russian Federation
- Built by
- OAO M. Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 2 t
- Operating
- Yes
- Orbit class
- Highly elliptical 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
- 5:37 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:37 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 65.5° N, 86.1° E
- Altitude
- 38,104 km
- Speed
- 1.71 km/s (6,149 km/h)
- Course
- east
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 65.5°
- Orbital period
- 717.8 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 2.01
- This orbit
- 2,093 to 38,261 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,990 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 12:40 AM, 16 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 12:40 AM, 16 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Meridian-M No. 19L, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Meridian-M No. 19L 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
Meridian-M No. 19L shares its launch, 2020-015, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| FREGAT R/B | Rocket body |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meridian-M No. 19L | 2,093 to 38,261 km | 718 minutes | about 2 t | 2020 |
| Hispasat 30W-6 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 6.1 t | 2018 |
| Amazonas Nexus | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2023 |
| ARSAT-1 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 3 t | 2014 |
| Astra 1N | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.3 t | 2011 |
| Hotbird 13F | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.5 t | 2022 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 12:40 AM, 16 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "MERIDIAN 9",
"OBJECT_ID": "2020-015A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T00:40:59.910816",
"MEAN_MOTION": 2.00614876,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.68100488,
"INCLINATION": 65.5405,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 303.9444,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 275.5005,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 16.363,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 45254,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 4917,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000199,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}