Quote from: jcm on 09/15/2025 01:03 pmIf Mozhaets-6 is of a similar Strela-1M type design to the earlier Mozhaets, it would use a gravity boom to stabilize, and might well be tumbling for the first few weeks until that is fully deployed.There are illustrations of Mozhayets-6 in Reply 13. No sign of a gravity boom. It doesn't look there is any commonality with the earlier satellites, which were launched more than 20 years ago and built in cooperation with PO Polyot in Omsk. It's not yet clear who the Mozhaiskiy Academy's industrial partner for this one is.
If Mozhaets-6 is of a similar Strela-1M type design to the earlier Mozhaets, it would use a gravity boom to stabilize, and might well be tumbling for the first few weeks until that is fully deployed.
One of ALDORIAs telescopes observed the satellite Kosmos-2595 on 14 September 2025, confirming a stable path in medium Earth orbit (MEO).
Is there any official confirmation yet regarding the launch of GLONASS-K 18?not there: https://glonass-iac.ru/glonass/sostavOG/I find this secrecy surrounding the launch of a GLONASS satellite ridiculous. GLONASS is also used for civilian purposes, so they'll share its existence and exact orbit later anyway—that's just how satellite navigation systems work.The latest TLE data are already 5 days old. The satellite had already performed maneuvers and was drifting towards orbital slot 20. What happened after that, of course, remains unknown.Slot 20 ... 21 at N2YO
Our data provider is aware of the current issue with some basic orbital data not reaching space-track.org as expected. They have identified the problem and are actively working on a resolution but do not have an estimated time to return to full capacity. Space Forces-Space (S4S) will continue spaceflight safety screenings and resolve any high priority events directly.
Newer data for the satellite. The orbital period is slightly shorter than before. (faster drift)But! The inclination has changed from 64.8 to 67.8 degrees. Huh? Is that correct?https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/table.php?INTDES=2025-206
Space-Track's satellite catalog now even gives an inclination of 68.24°, even though it is given as 67.84° in the corresponding TLE set. Perigee and apogee are also weird: 18,463x19,639 km.
Quote from: B. Hendrickx on 09/25/2025 09:19 pmSpace-Track's satellite catalog now even gives an inclination of 68.24°, even though it is given as 67.84° in the corresponding TLE set. Perigee and apogee are also weird: 18,463x19,639 km.Looks like that mistake has now been corrected:18,984x19,138 km, 64.79°The perigee is still quite low for a Glonass.
Glonass K 708 is now on the status page. Slot 20 confirmed.https://glonass-iac.ru/en/sostavOG/
The orbits of two space objects of some significance have just become publicly available for the first time (courtesy of Russia's JSC Vimpel space object catalog). 1️⃣ The PRC YZ-1 upper stage used to inject Shiyan-29 (SY-29, 65486 / 2025-196A) into an inclined geosynchronous orbit and 2️⃣ COSMOS 2596, a microsat accompanying a Russian Glonass launch on 13 Sep 2025...COSMOS 2596 was launched into a medium earth orbit (MEO) on 13 Sep 2025 and is in the US catalog as SATNO 65589 / 2025-206A. It was a secondary payload to COSMOS 2595, a Russian Glonass satellite. However, there have been no element sets publicly released. The significance? COSMOS 2596, also known as Mozhayets-6, appears to be a microsat and has the lowest optical signature of any satellite to date in MEO. It has an optical signature of 16.6 Mv (normalized to 40,000 km range and zero degree solar phase). This translates into an optical cross section of 0.17 m2 or an effective diameter of 0.47 m assuming a standard albedo/reflectance of 0.2.I suspect the lack of COSMOS 2596 orbital data on space-track.org may be related to the ongoing "current issue with some basic orbital data not reaching space-track.org as expected" per the home page.
The latest US data (10 days old) now show object B (Kosmos-2595) in an unusual 18,315 x 19,978 km orbit. Could be another mistake.
053-251016NOTICE ADVISORY TO GLONASS USERS (NAGU) 053-251016SUBJ:28/07 (719) SC ON RESEARCH OF THE GENERAL DESIGNER 1.CONDITION: 28/07 SC 719 ON RESEARCH OF THE GENERAL DESIGNER 16.10.2025 12:14:552.USERS ARE REMINDED TO UPDATE ALMANACS IF NECESSARY054-251016NOTICE ADVISORY TO GLONASS USERS (NAGU) 054-251016SUBJ:20/02 (708) SC ON STAGE OF ACTION 1.CONDITION: 20/02 SC 708 ON STAGE OF ACTION 16.10.25/00002.USERS ARE REMINDED TO UPDATE ALMANACS IF NECESSARY055-251016NOTICE ADVISORY TO GLONASS USERS (NAGU) 055-251016SUBJ:20/02 (708) PUT INTO OPERATION 16.10.25/1320 1.CONDITION: 20/02 (708) PUT INTO OPERATION 16.10.25/1320 MSK (UTC+0300)2.USERS ARE REMINDED TO UPDATE ALMANACS IF NECESSARY
Shortly after the launch – identified as 2025-206 – initial orbit data was made available in the US public catalog for both the rocket upper stage (FREGAT R/B, NORAD 65591) and the GLONASS payload (COSMOS 2595, NORAD 65590). The GLONASS object was in medium Earth orbit (MEO) at an altitude of approximately 19,100 km, but no data was published for Mozhayets-6 apart from the assignment of a NORAD ID and a name (officially COSMOS 2596, NORAD 65589). After five weeks without orbital data posted in the US public catalog, Slingshot set out to help locate this missing object.A post on X from s2a systems on 14 September 2025, shortly after launch, included imagery that showed a dim object adjacent to the GLONASS payload. Slingshot analysts hypothesized this was likely Mozhayets-6, indicating that the two payloads were deployed into the same orbital plane. Additional information on Mozhayets-6, from Slingshot’s Seradata database, indicated the mass of the satellite was around 100 kg. Slingshot’s research and development (R&D) team leveraged these facts to estimate the expected brightness and reduced the search volume. The results indicated an expected brightness between 15th – 17th visual magnitude (mv). The signature would be dim, but well within the limits of Slingshot’s gimbaled telescope systems. Based on that same estimated mass, Slingshot astrodynamicists further hypothesized that Mozhayets-6 would not have been able to maneuver far out of plane from COSMOS 2595. The Slingshot Global Sensor Network (SGSN) was subsequently tasked to scan this refined search volume. Within hours, gimbaled telescopes located at Slingshot’s sites in Spain and Morocco established a set of uncorrelated tracks on an object within that search volume. An uncorrelated track (UCT) is a sequence of observations that does not match an orbital state associated with catalogued objects, either within the US public catalog or within Slingshot’s commercial catalog. Using the observations collected during this search, orbital analysts performed initial orbit determination (IOD) through Slingshot’s Multi-Frame Assignment Space Tracker (MFAST) software. The subsequent solution was used to task further collections from multiple global telescope systems. This led to additional simultaneous collections by SGSN sensors, confirming the existence of the unidentified object. The object’s orbit seemed to be closely aligned with the predicted orbital plane of Mozhayets-6.
COSMOS 2596 [GLONASS-K1], recorded today, 2025-09-14 12:41:00 UTC, accompanied by a fainter, tumbling object in train.
China, Russia experiment with stealthy satellites, Space Force official saysChina and Russia are experimenting with stealth technologies aimed at making it harder for radar and telescopes to find their satellites, according to a senior Space Force official.“In years past, we’ve talked about this cat and mouse game that was happening at GEO [geosynchronous Earth orbit] — Chinese, Russian, US satellite, sort of stalking each other. This past year has really been more of a hide and seek game that we’ve seen at LEO [low Earth orbit],” Chief Master Sergeant Ron Lerch, senior enlisted advisor to the deputy chief of space operations for intelligence, said today....Meanwhile, Russia “very recently” orbited an experimental satellite with very low visibility called Mozhayets in medium Earth orbit (MEO), Lerch said.“What’s fascinating about the Mozhayets is that it has a very, very low visual magnitude. Just to give you some context, the Sun is a negative 26 visual magnitude. So, a negative or a lower number, the brighter. In other words … when you go to a positive number, that means that it’s dimmer,” he said. “So GPS satellites at MEO, they’ve got about a 6.5 visual magnitude. This Mozhayets satellite the Russians put up to MEO was at about a 16 for visual magnitude, very difficult to see.”Lerch credited commercial firms for helping the Space Force identify and track these increasingly stealthy satellites, noting that without commercial data it would be impossible to discuss their activities in an unclassified environment.According to Lerch’s slides, LeoLabs provided the information about the Shiyan birds, and Slingshot about the Mozhayets. Indeed, Slingshot actually found the Mozhayets before the Space Force did — at least publicly — according to a Nov. 17 company press release.The Mozhayets-6, built by Russia’s Mozhaisky Military Space Academy, was launched on Sept. 13 as a rideshare on a new Russian GLONASS positioning, navigation and timing satellite, the release explained. But it spend five weeks lost in space, at least to the Space Force’s public database of on-orbit objects, Slingshot said.
