- Communications satellite
- Military
- FLTSATCOM 5
- NORAD 12635
- 1981-073A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Banda Sea
Orbit ends over the Java Sea
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches FLTSATCOM F5 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 FLTSATCOM F5, 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 the South China Sea LIVE
Where is FLTSATCOM F5?
At 6:21:02 PM UTC FLTSATCOM F5 was over the South China Sea (9.9° N, 116.5° E), 36,253 km up, moving at 3.06 km/s and in sunlight.
What is FLTSATCOM F5?
A communications satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Aug 6, 1981.
Can I see FLTSATCOM F5?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for FLTSATCOM F5, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- Navy Electronic Systems Command
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- TRW Inc.
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- 942 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
- 6:21 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:21 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 9.9° N, 116.5° E
- Altitude
- 36,253 km
- Speed
- 3.06 km/s (11,009 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight until 3:49 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 13.6°
- Orbital period
- 1,460.4 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 0.99
- This orbit
- 36,231 to 36,292 km
- In shadow
- 65 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,950 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 11:55 PM, 18 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 11:55 PM, 18 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for FLTSATCOM F5, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to FLTSATCOM F5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FLTSATCOM F5 | 36,231 to 36,292 km | 1,460 minutes | 942 kg | 1981 |
| 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 7, 2026, 11:55 PM, 18 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "FLTSATCOM 5",
"OBJECT_ID": "1981-073A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T23:55:38.550144",
"MEAN_MOTION": 0.98605539,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00071397,
"INCLINATION": 13.5821,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 306.1523,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 209.7254,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 10.6628,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 12635,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 13448,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000168,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}