- Earth-watching satellite
- NIMBUS 7
- NORAD 11080
- 1978-098A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Southern Ocean
Orbit ends over the Southern Ocean
In the Earth’s shadow since
Back in sunlight
In view from you
Nobody watches Nimbus 7 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 Nimbus 7, 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 Monday, Oct 19 at 11:50 PM UTC, Cosmos 1249 Coolant (NORAD 26508) was to pass within 250 m of Nimbus 7 (NORAD 11080). The chance was about 1 in 6,000.
Summary
Over the Indian Ocean LIVE
Where is Nimbus 7?
At 5:35:38 PM UTC Nimbus 7 was over the Indian Ocean (2.4° S, 65.7° E), 948 km up, moving at 7.38 km/s and in the Earth’s shadow.
What is Nimbus 7?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Oct 24, 1978.
Can I see Nimbus 7?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Nimbus 7, 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
- GE Missiles and Space Vehicles Division (MSVD)
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 987 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
- 5:35 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:35 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 2.4° S, 65.7° E
- Altitude
- 948 km
- Speed
- 7.38 km/s (26,564 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In the Earth’s shadow until 5:45 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 99.4°
- Orbital period
- 104 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 13.85
- This orbit
- 939 to 951 km
- In shadow
- 34 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,330 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 2:50 AM, 14 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 2:50 AM, 14 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Nimbus 7, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- 1 reported. No close approach to Nimbus 7 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.
Launched with
Nimbus 7 shares its launch, 1978-098, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| DELTA 1 R/B(+CAMEO) | Rocket body |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nimbus 7 | 939 to 951 km | 104 minutes | 987 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, 2:50 AM, 14 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "NIMBUS 7",
"OBJECT_ID": "1978-098A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T02:50:25.645632",
"MEAN_MOTION": 13.84526232,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00080567,
"INCLINATION": 99.4466,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 197.3329,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 247.9674,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 112.0625,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 11080,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 42661,
"BSTAR": 0.000024946539,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -1.8e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}