SCATHA

LIVE
See on the map

Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/11256

  • NORAD 11256
  • 1979-007A
  • Inclined geosynchronous

Current orbit

Where SCATHA is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over Somalia

Orbit ends over the Indian Ocean

Sunlit since

Enters the Earth’s shadow

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches SCATHA 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 SCATHA, 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 to see with the naked eye from anywhere on Earth.

Timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source

Summary

Over South Sudan LIVE

Where is SCATHA?

At 5:36:17 PM UTC SCATHA was over South Sudan (8.7° N, 31.4° E), 32,312 km up, moving at 3.33 km/s and in sunlight.

What is SCATHA?

A satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Jan 30, 1979.

Can I see SCATHA?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for SCATHA, and nothing here estimates one.

General

Operator
USAF SMC/DoD Space Test Program
State
United States of America
Built by
Martin Marietta
Launched
Mass
357 kg
Operating
Orbit class
Inclined geosynchronous

From GCAT, Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0: the operator, the state, the manufacturer, 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
8.7° N, 31.4° E
Altitude
32,312 km
Speed
3.33 km/s (11,981 km/h)
Course
east
Light
In sunlight until 8:19 PM UTC
Inclination
9.3°
Orbital period
1,418.3 minutes
Orbits per day
1.02
This orbit
27,916 to 42,961 km
In shadow
26 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 7,860 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 7, 2026, 11:16 PM, 18 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 11:16 PM, 18 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for SCATHA, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to SCATHA 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.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

Launched with

SCATHA shares its launch, 1979-007, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.

BodyWhat it is
SCATHA AKMRocket 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.

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 7, 2026, 11:16 PM, 18 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "SCATHA",
  "OBJECT_ID": "1979-007A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-07T23:16:19.854336",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 1.01530594,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.17990287,
  "INCLINATION": 9.3002,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 274.3165,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 144.949,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 24.5167,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 11256,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 14391,
  "BSTAR": 0,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000106,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}