MOLNIYA 3-20

MOLNIYA 3-20 is an active satellite operated by Russia (CIS), launched on 1983-03-11 from PKMTR. With over 43 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 1,332 km and 39,063 km with an inclination of 61.9°. It travels at approximately 13,944 km/h (3.87 km/s), completing one full orbit every 11 hours 59 minutes — that’s roughly 2.00 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7101 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Orbital Radar tracks MOLNIYA 3-20 in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

MOLNIYA 3-20 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.