CLASSIFIED
COSMOS 2563 (EKS 6)
Russian Nuclear Missile Early Warning Satellite (Tundra/EKS) · Russian Aerospace Forces
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Cosmos 2563 is supposed to be one of the satellites that tells the Kremlin whether a nuclear missile is inbound. It's part of Russia's Tundra/EKS early-warning constellation — designed to field ten satellites watching for the infrared flash of a launch from a highly elliptical orbit. As of the most recent independent orbital tracking, the entire network may be down to just one or two confirmed-operational satellites. This is the sixth satellite built for that program.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Highly Ellipticalswings far out, then dives back close to Earth
- Altitude
- 994–24,088 mi (1,600–38,767 km)
- Inclination
- 63.2°
- One orbit
- 12.0 hours2.0 orbits a day
- NORAD ID
- 54223
- Int’l designator
- 2022-145A
- Launched
- 2022
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 15 Sep 2026.
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