- Military
- NORAD 11558
- 1979-086A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Ghana
Orbit ends over Ghana
In view from you
Nobody watches OPS 1948 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 OPS 1948, 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
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Atlantic Ocean LIVE
Where is OPS 1948?
At 7:03:53 PM UTC OPS 1948 was over the Atlantic Ocean (4.9° S, 13.6° W), 39,005 km up, moving at 2.85 km/s and in sunlight.
What is OPS 1948?
A satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Oct 1, 1979.
Can I see OPS 1948?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for OPS 1948, and nothing here estimates one.
General
- Operator
- National Reconnaissance Office
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- TRW Inc.
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 1 t
- Operating
- No: its regular operations have ended
- Orbit class
- Inclined geosynchronous
From GCAT, Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0: the operator, the state, the manufacturer, 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
- 7:03 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 7:03 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 4.9° S, 13.6° W
- Altitude
- 39,005 km
- Speed
- 2.85 km/s (10,256 km/h)
- Course
- west
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 6.1°
- Orbital period
- 1,436.8 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 1
- This orbit
- 30,287 to 41,317 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 8,010 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 7:36 AM, 11 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 7:36 AM, 11 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for OPS 1948, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to OPS 1948 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.
Launched with
OPS 1948 shares its launch, 1979-086, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| TITAN 3C TRANSTAGE R/B | 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.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 7:36 AM, 11 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "OPS 1948",
"OBJECT_ID": "1979-086A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T07:36:13.090752",
"MEAN_MOTION": 1.00221577,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.13074498,
"INCLINATION": 6.1423,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 12.7826,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 79.1572,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 67.9647,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 11558,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 2765,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000104,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}