Cosmos: A Name, Not a Mission
Cosmos — Kosmos in Russian — is not one constellation. It is a catch-all designation the Soviet Union and now Russia have applied to well over 2,500 satellites since 1962, covering almost every purpose imaginable. AstroSat tracks the ones still in orbit.
The numbers right now
As of August 3, 2026, AstroSat is tracking 1,162 satellites in this constellation — about 6% of every active satellite currently tracked, out of 18,436 active satellites in total.
This is a live catalogue count, not a fixed design figure: it includes retired and spare satellites that are still in orbit and still being tracked, which is why it can differ from the “official” constellation size. Refreshed automatically from Space-Track every two hours.
What flies under the Cosmos name
Reconnaissance
A large share of Cosmos launches have been military imaging and signals-intelligence satellites — the designation was originally useful precisely because it revealed nothing about the payload.
Navigation
GLONASS satellites, Russia's answer to GPS, are catalogued with Cosmos numbers alongside their GLONASS designations.
Science and test flights
The name has also covered biological research missions, materials experiments, calibration targets and failed interplanetary probes that never left Earth orbit.
And some of the debris
Cosmos 2251 was destroyed in the 2009 collision with Iridium 33, and Cosmos 1408 was destroyed in a 2021 Russian anti-satellite test — both scattered debris still tracked today.
The Cosmos designation began in 1962 and was applied deliberately broadly: a Cosmos number told the outside world that the Soviet Union had launched something, and nothing else. That makes it unlike every other group on AstroSat — Starlink, GPS and Iridium each describe a single system with one operator and one purpose, while Cosmos describes an accounting convention spanning six decades of unrelated spacecraft. It also means the number of Cosmos objects currently in orbit is large but says little on its own: it mixes working satellites, long-dead ones that were never deorbited, and fragments from two of the most consequential debris-generating events in the history of spaceflight. This page tracks what is still up there rather than what is still working, and the difference is the interesting part.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Cosmos satellite?
Cosmos (Kosmos) is a Soviet and Russian designation applied to a huge range of satellites since 1962 — reconnaissance, navigation, science, technology tests and more. It identifies the launching country, not the mission.
How many Cosmos satellites are there?
Over 2,500 have been launched since 1962. The live count here shows only those still carrying a current orbital element set, which is a fraction of the total.
Are Cosmos satellites still being launched?
Yes. Russia continues to use the designation for new launches, including military payloads and GLONASS navigation satellites.
Is GLONASS part of Cosmos?
GLONASS satellites carry Cosmos numbers as well as their own GLONASS designations, so they appear under both names in catalogues.