- Navigation satellite
- Military
- COSMOS 422
- NORAD 5238
- 1971-046A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Indian Ocean
Orbit ends over the Indian Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Kosmos-422 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-422, 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 far too high and too faint for the naked eye. What you notice of it is a position fix, and the card above says whether it is above your horizon to give you one.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
- Close approach
On Wednesday, Oct 14 at 4:46 PM UTC, a fragment of Cosmos 970 (NORAD 10879) was to pass within 684 m of Cosmos 422 (NORAD 5238). The chance was about 1 in 5,000.
Summary
Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is Kosmos-422?
At 10:37:10 PM UTC Kosmos-422 was over the Pacific Ocean (51.6° S, 114.2° W), 1,006 km up, moving at 7.35 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kosmos-422?
A navigation satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since May 22, 1971.
Can I see Kosmos-422?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kosmos-422, and nothing here estimates one; receivers on the ground use its signals instead, whenever it is above their horizon.
General
- Operator
- OKB-10 (Reshetnev)
- State
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
- Built by
- Omsk Aviation Plant
- What it is
- Navigation satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- 680 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, 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
- 10:37 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 10:37 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 51.6° S, 114.2° W
- Altitude
- 1,006 km
- Speed
- 7.35 km/s (26,460 km/h)
- Course
- north-east
- Light
- In sunlight until 11:18 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 74°
- Orbital period
- 104.9 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 13.72
- This orbit
- 977 to 1,001 km
- In shadow
- 21 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,420 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 5:26 AM, 17 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 5:26 AM, 17 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kosmos-422, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- 1 reported. No close approach to Kosmos-422 is reported for the next three 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-422 shares its launch, 1971-046, with 2 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| SL-8 R/B | Rocket body |
| COSMOS 422 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.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 5:26 AM, 17 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "COSMOS 422",
"OBJECT_ID": "1971-046A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T05:26:37.059648",
"MEAN_MOTION": 13.7230275,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00157418,
"INCLINATION": 74.0181,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 295.4803,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 241.5471,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 129.6936,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 5238,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 77724,
"BSTAR": 0.00003816684,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 1.2e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}