- Communications satellite
- Military
- NORAD 11115
- 1978-106A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Brazil
Orbit ends over Brazil
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches NATO 3C 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 NATO 3C, 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 reaches you from it reaches a dish or an antenna, not an eye.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over Brazil LIVE
Where is NATO 3C?
At 6:52:04 PM UTC NATO 3C was over Brazil (6.8° S, 65.8° W), 36,269 km up, moving at 3.06 km/s and in sunlight.
What is NATO 3C?
A communications satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Nov 19, 1978.
Can I see NATO 3C?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for NATO 3C, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- NATO Integrated Communications Management Agency
- State
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- Built by
- Ford Aerospace, Palo Alto
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- 307 kg
- Operating
- Orbit class
- Inclined geosynchronous
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
- 6:52 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:52 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 6.8° S, 65.8° W
- Altitude
- 36,269 km
- Speed
- 3.06 km/s (11,009 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In sunlight until 4:05 AM UTC
- Inclination
- 8.9°
- Orbital period
- 1,462.2 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 0.98
- This orbit
- 36,268 to 36,326 km
- In shadow
- 32 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,950 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 12:51 AM, 18 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 12:51 AM, 18 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for NATO 3C, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to NATO 3C 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NATO 3C | 36,268 to 36,326 km | 1,462 minutes | 307 kg | 1978 |
| Hispasat 30W-6 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 6.1 t | 2018 |
| Amazonas Nexus | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2023 |
| ARSAT-1 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 3 t | 2014 |
| Astra 1N | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.3 t | 2011 |
| Hotbird 13F | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.5 t | 2022 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 12:51 AM, 18 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "NATO 3C",
"OBJECT_ID": "1978-106A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T00:51:14.573376",
"MEAN_MOTION": 0.98482306,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00067428,
"INCLINATION": 8.8829,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 314.7138,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 324.677,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 79.3563,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 11115,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 65663,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000127,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}