- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- OPS 6182 (DMSP 5D-1 F3)
- NORAD 10820
- 1978-042A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Antarctica
Orbit ends over Antarctica
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches DMSP F-3 go over, but a receiver still asks whether it is above the horizon. Say where you are and this card answers.
Your position is rounded to about a kilometre and sent only to the Orbinauts API, to find the pass.
No brightness has been published for DMSP F-3, so it is not a naked-eye satellite and no city page carries pass times for it. Nothing here estimates one.
Seeing it
There is nothing to go outside for: it is too faint for the naked eye. What it is up there for reaches the ground as pictures and measurements, not as a light in the sky.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over Niger LIVE
Where is DMSP F-3?
At 5:39:04 PM UTC DMSP F-3 was over Niger (17° N, 15.1° E), 769 km up, moving at 7.47 km/s and in sunlight.
What is DMSP F-3?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since May 1, 1978.
Can I see DMSP F-3?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for DMSP F-3, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- USAF Space and Missile Systems Organization
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- RCA Astro Electronics (Astro Space)
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- 447 kg
- Operating
- No: its regular operations have ended
- Orbit class
- Low Earth orbit
From GCAT, Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0: the operator, the state, the manufacturer, what it is for, that a defence organisation flies it, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 5:39 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:39 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 17° N, 15.1° E
- Altitude
- 769 km
- Speed
- 7.47 km/s (26,892 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight until 7:01 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 98.4°
- Orbital period
- 100.1 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.38
- This orbit
- 756 to 768 km
- In shadow
- 7 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,060 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 12:11 AM, 17 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 12:11 AM, 17 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for DMSP F-3, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to DMSP F-3 has been reported publicly in the past thirty days.
From Space-Track’s public conjunction messages; the latest report was issued Nov 8, 2026, 1:11 PM, 3 hours old. Only approaches serious enough to be reported publicly are listed: within three days and, for two bodies near the Earth, closer than a kilometre with a chance of a collision above 1 in 10,000, the level at which NASA moves the ISS.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DMSP F-3 | 756 to 768 km | 100 minutes | 447 kg | 1978 |
| Envisat | 761 to 762 km | 100 minutes | about 8.1 t | 2002 |
| NISAR | 749 to 751 km | 100 minutes | about 2.4 t | 2025 |
| Sentinel-2A | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2015 |
| Sentinel-2B | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2017 |
| Sentinel-2C | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2024 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 12:11 AM, 17 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "OPS 6182 (DMSP 5D-1 F3)",
"OBJECT_ID": "1978-042A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T00:11:54.114144",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.38172387,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00082322,
"INCLINATION": 98.4403,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 144.442,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 279.6304,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 80.3953,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 10820,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 53368,
"BSTAR": 0.00016510287,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000458,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}