- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- COSMOS 2581
- NORAD 62902
- 2025-026A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Atlantic Ocean
Orbit ends over the Atlantic Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Kosmos-2581 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-2581, 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
- Rendezvous
Kosmos-2582 came up beside Kosmos-2581, from Feb 5, 2025, as public sources state. Its sources
- Rendezvous
Kosmos-2583 came up beside Kosmos-2581, from Feb 5, 2025, as public sources state. Its sources
Summary
Over the Atlantic Ocean LIVE
Where is Kosmos-2581?
At 5:17:24 PM UTC Kosmos-2581 was over the Atlantic Ocean (45.1° N, 12.2° W), 590 km up, moving at 7.57 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kosmos-2581?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Feb 5, 2025.
Can I see Kosmos-2581?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kosmos-2581, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- Russian Ministry of Defense
- State
- Russian Federation
- Built by
- Joint Stock Corp. VNIIEM
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- 500 kg
- Operating
- Yes
- 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
- 5:17 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:17 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 45.1° N, 12.2° W
- Altitude
- 590 km
- Speed
- 7.57 km/s (27,248 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In sunlight until 5:29 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 82°
- Orbital period
- 96.3 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.95
- This orbit
- 572 to 585 km
- In shadow
- 25 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,740 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 1, 2026, 6:03 PM, 6 days old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 1, 2026, 6:03 PM, 6 days old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kosmos-2581, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Kosmos-2581 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-2581 shares its launch, 2025-026, with 3 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| COSMOS 2582 | Earth-watching satellite |
| COSMOS 2583 | Earth-watching satellite |
| OBJECT F | Earth-watching satellite |
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-2581 | 572 to 585 km | 96 minutes | 500 kg | 2025 |
| 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 |
| PAZ | 507 to 510 km | 95 minutes | about 1.4 t | 2018 |
| 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 1, 2026, 6:03 PM, 6 days old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "COSMOS 2581",
"OBJECT_ID": "2025-026A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-01T18:03:31.533984",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.95264622,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.0009162,
"INCLINATION": 81.993,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 294.0967,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 328.2298,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 31.8368,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 62902,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 9477,
"BSTAR": 0.000090313,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00001018,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}