Home › Other Active Satellites › COSMOS 2579
COSMOS 2579 — Live Satellite Tracking (NORAD 61730)
Track COSMOS 2579 (NORAD catalog number 61730) live on the WatchSat interactive 3D globe above. Its position is propagated in real time from the latest CelesTrak two-line element set using the SGP4/SDP4 orbital model — the same math professional trackers run. It has been on orbit since 2024, launched on the 197th orbital launch of that year (COSPAR designation 2024-197A). As of this element set it had completed roughly 10,298 revolutions of Earth.
Moving at about 7.62 km/s, COSMOS 2579 flies in low Earth orbit at an altitude of roughly 495 × 499 km, completing one revolution every 94.4 minutes — about 15.3 trips around Earth per day. The orbit is essentially circular (eccentricity 0.0003). Its 97.6° retrograde, near-polar inclination is characteristic of a Sun-synchronous orbit — the type Earth-imaging and weather satellites use to revisit each spot at the same local solar time. Its orbital plane crosses the equator northbound at right ascension 175.0°. Earth's equatorial bulge precesses that plane eastward about 1.01° per day, matching the Sun's apparent motion — which is what holds its lighting constant.
Orbital elements
| Orbit regime | low Earth orbit (LEO) |
|---|---|
| Perigee × apogee altitude | ~495 km × 499 km |
| Inclination | 97.56° |
| Orbital period | 94.4 min (15.25 rev/day) |
| Eccentricity | 0.00031 |
| Element set epoch | 2026-09-07 |
| COSPAR designation | 2024-197A |
| NORAD catalog number | 61730 |
This page's orbital elements come from the CelesTrak catalog of 2026-09-08. The live 3D view above fetches its own current CelesTrak data when the page opens, through an edge cache that refreshes roughly every 30 minutes.
About the Other Active Satellites group
COSMOS 2579 is one of 4,471 active satellites in WatchSat's general catalog — the broad population of Earth-observation, communications, science, amateur-radio and technology spacecraft outside the giant broadband constellations. Browse all other active satellites live in 3D.
Can you see COSMOS 2579 from the ground?
Sometimes. Like most low-Earth-orbit spacecraft, COSMOS 2579 is visible only around dawn and dusk, when your sky is dark but the satellite is still sunlit — and whether you can spot it depends on its size and reflectivity. See pass predictions for your location for when it is above your horizon and sunlit.
Related satellites
Nearest catalog neighbors of COSMOS 2579 in the Other Active Satellites group — usually craft from the same or adjacent launches:
- DSN-3 (KIRAMEKI-3) (NORAD 61733)
- IONOSFERA-M 1 (NORAD 61735)
- IONOSFERA-M 2 (NORAD 61736)
- SITRO-AIS 16 (NORAD 61737)
- SITRO-AIS 15 (NORAD 61738)
- SITRO-AIS 21 (NORAD 61739)
Browse the Other Active Satellites directory or the full satellite directory · What is a TLE? · WatchSat live globe