- Earth-watching satellite
- TIROS N
- NORAD 11060
- 1978-096A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Pacific Ocean
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches Tiros-N 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 Tiros-N, 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
- Close approach
On Thursday, Oct 22 at 12:55 PM UTC, a fragment of Fengyun 1C (NORAD 32326) was to pass within 530 m of Tiros N (NORAD 11060). The chance was about 1 in 9,000.
Summary
Over the Greenland Sea LIVE
Where is Tiros-N?
At 5:36:14 PM UTC Tiros-N was over the Greenland Sea (73.7° N, 15.1° W), 841 km up, moving at 7.44 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Tiros-N?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Oct 13, 1978.
Can I see Tiros-N?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Tiros-N, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- RCA Astro Electronics (Astro Space)
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 675 kg
- Operating
- 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, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 5:36 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:36 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 73.7° N, 15.1° W
- Altitude
- 841 km
- Speed
- 7.44 km/s (26,777 km/h)
- Course
- north-west
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 98.4°
- Orbital period
- 101.5 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.19
- This orbit
- 817 to 832 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,170 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 3:42 AM, 13 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 3:42 AM, 13 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Tiros-N, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- 1 reported. No close approach to Tiros-N is reported for the next three 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tiros-N | 817 to 832 km | 101 minutes | 675 kg | 1978 |
| 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 |
| Metop-B | 818 to 823 km | 101 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2012 |
| Metop-C | 820 to 821 km | 101 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2018 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 3:42 AM, 13 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "TIROS N",
"OBJECT_ID": "1978-096A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T03:42:46.250208",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.19408634,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00103849,
"INCLINATION": 98.4478,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 326.6541,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 179.2284,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 180.891,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 11060,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 69917,
"BSTAR": 0.000090677975,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000149,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}