- Earth-watching satellite
- VANGUARD 2
- NORAD 11
- 1959-001A
- Medium Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Arabian Sea
Orbit ends over Sudan
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Vanguard II 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 Vanguard II, 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 Australia LIVE
Where is Vanguard II?
At 9:11:13 PM UTC Vanguard II was over Australia (31.6° S, 142.9° E), 1,635 km up, moving at 7.1 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Vanguard II?
A satellite that watches the Earth in medium Earth orbit, in space since Feb 17, 1959.
Can I see Vanguard II?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Vanguard II, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- NASA Beltsville Space Center
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- Naval Research Lab
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 10 kg
- Operating
- Orbit class
- Medium Earth orbit
From GCAT, Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0: the operator, the state, the manufacturer, what it is for, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 9:11 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 9:11 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 31.6° S, 142.9° E
- Altitude
- 1,635 km
- Speed
- 7.1 km/s (25,546 km/h)
- Course
- east
- Light
- In sunlight until 10:26 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 32.9°
- Orbital period
- 120.9 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 11.91
- This orbit
- 555 to 2,897 km
- In shadow
- 31 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 3,160 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 5:48 AM, 15 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 5:48 AM, 15 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Vanguard II, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Vanguard II 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.
Launched with
Vanguard II shares its launch, 1959-001, with 2 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| VANGUARD R/B | Rocket body |
| VANGUARD DEB | Debris |
Read from the international designators of the US catalogue: the year and the launch number every piece of one launch shares. A body that has come down is no longer listed.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanguard II | 555 to 2,897 km | 121 minutes | 10 kg | 1959 |
| Sentinel-6MF | 1,332 to 1,344 km | 112 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2020 |
| Sentinel-6B | 1,332 to 1,344 km | 112 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2025 |
| Sentinel-5P | 826 to 828 km | 101 minutes | 820 kg | 2017 |
| Suomi NPP | 825 to 829 km | 101 minutes | about 2.1 t | 2011 |
| MetOp-SG A1 | 820 to 821 km | 101 minutes | about 4 t | 2025 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 5:48 AM, 15 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "VANGUARD 2",
"OBJECT_ID": "1959-001A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T05:48:27.981792",
"MEAN_MOTION": 11.90698024,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.14446397,
"INCLINATION": 32.8664,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 259.7538,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 156.9766,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 210.2768,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 11,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 55264,
"BSTAR": 0.00021153387,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000418,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}