- Earth-watching satellite
- NORAD 11416
- 1979-057A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Pacific Ocean
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches NOAA 6 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 NOAA 6, 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 the Indian Ocean LIVE
Where is NOAA 6?
At 6:42:15 PM UTC NOAA 6 was over the Indian Ocean (41° S, 20.1° E), 794 km up, moving at 7.45 km/s and in sunlight.
What is NOAA 6?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Jun 27, 1979.
Can I see NOAA 6?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for NOAA 6, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- RCA Astro Electronics (Astro Space)
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 684 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
- 6:42 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:42 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 41° S, 20.1° E
- Altitude
- 794 km
- Speed
- 7.45 km/s (26,831 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In sunlight until 6:55 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 98.6°
- Orbital period
- 100.3 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.36
- This orbit
- 763 to 777 km
- In shadow
- 7 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,100 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 2:10 AM, 16 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 2:10 AM, 16 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for NOAA 6, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to NOAA 6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOAA 6 | 763 to 777 km | 100 minutes | 684 kg | 1979 |
| Envisat | 761 to 762 km | 100 minutes | about 8.1 t | 2002 |
| Sentinel-2A | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2015 |
| Sentinel-2B | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2017 |
| Sentinel-2C | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2024 |
| NISAR | 749 to 751 km | 100 minutes | about 2.4 t | 2025 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 2:10 AM, 16 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "NOAA 6",
"OBJECT_ID": "1979-057A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T02:10:08.402592",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.3556075,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.0009874,
"INCLINATION": 98.5509,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 340.4604,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 184.8223,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 175.2869,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 11416,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 47160,
"BSTAR": 0.00011749496,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000295,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}