COSMOS 2251 DEB
NORAD 34976· COSPAR 1993-036AFF· Debris· LEO
Live · TLE epoch 2026-06-09 16:40 UTC
Orbit class
LEO — Low Earth Orbit (circular, < 2,000 km)
Operator
Russia / Soviet Union (military)
Country
Russia
Manufacturer
—
Launched
Jun 16, 1993
Mass
—
Apogee
666 km
Perigee
604 km
Inclination
74.06°
Period
1.62 h
Parent launch
The parent object was launched on Jun 16, 1993 from 132/1 (132L), Russia aboard a Kosmos-3M (11K65M).
Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 51 →Debris origin · satellite collision
Kosmos-2251 was a defunct Russian Strela-2M military communications satellite, inactive since the mid-1990s. On 10 February 2009 it collided with the active US Iridium 33 satellite at about 789 km over northern Siberia — the first accidental hypervelocity collision between two intact satellites. The Kosmos-2251 cloud is the larger of the two, with roughly 1,600 catalogued fragments.
Parent object
Kosmos-2251
Event date
Feb 10, 2009
Altitude
~789 km
Radar size class
SMALL
Part of the GLONASS constellation · this satellite is one of 636
Russian satellite navigation system. ~24 active sats in MEO at ~19,100 km.
Related satellites
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