- CAT 3
- NORAD 12546
- 1981-057C
- Highly elliptical orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Pacific Ocean
Orbit ends over the Bay of Bengal
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches CAT 03 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 CAT 03, 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 Brazil LIVE
Where is CAT 03?
At 5:37:17 PM UTC CAT 03 was over Brazil (6.5° S, 53.7° W), 17,829 km up, moving at 2.66 km/s and in sunlight.
What is CAT 03?
A satellite in a highly elliptical orbit, in space since Jun 19, 1981.
Can I see CAT 03?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for CAT 03, and nothing here estimates one.
General
- Operator
- European Space Agency
- State
- European Space Agency
- Built by
- Aeritalia Space Systems
- Launched
- Mass
- 266 kg
- Operating
- No: its regular operations have ended
- Orbit class
- Highly elliptical orbit
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
- 5:37 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:37 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 6.5° S, 53.7° W
- Altitude
- 17,829 km
- Speed
- 2.66 km/s (9,562 km/h)
- Course
- south-east
- Light
- In sunlight until 7:56 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 10.2°
- Orbital period
- 317 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 4.54
- This orbit
- 218 to 17,838 km
- In shadow
- 25 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,220 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 12:25 PM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 12:25 PM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for CAT 03, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to CAT 03 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
CAT 03 shares its launch, 1981-057, with 4 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| METEOSAT 2 | Earth-watching satellite |
| APPLE | Communications satellite |
| METEOSAT 2 AKM (MAGE 1) | Rocket body |
| ARIANE 1 DEB | Debris |
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, 12:25 PM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "CAT 3",
"OBJECT_ID": "1981-057C",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T12:25:28.930080",
"MEAN_MOTION": 4.5422173,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.57184722,
"INCLINATION": 10.2452,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 41.0581,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 36.5255,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 351.3469,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 12546,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 42155,
"BSTAR": 0.00096436269,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.0002273,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}