COSMOS 1261

COSMOS 1261 is an active satellite operated by Russia (CIS), launched on 1981-03-31 from PKMTR. With over 45 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 4,561 km and 35,767 km with an inclination of 68.8°. It travels at approximately 13,953 km/h (3.88 km/s), completing one full orbit every 11 hours 57 minutes — that’s roughly 2.01 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.5880 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Orbital Radar tracks COSMOS 1261 in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

COSMOS 1261 operates in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), the region between LEO and GEO spanning roughly 2,000 to 35,786 km altitude. MEO is home to navigation constellations (GPS at ~20,200 km, Galileo at ~23,222 km, GLONASS at ~19,130 km) and some communications systems. The higher altitude gives each satellite a much larger ground footprint than LEO, meaning fewer satellites are needed for global coverage, but signal latency is higher and radiation exposure — particularly from the Van Allen belts — is a significant design challenge.