- AUREOLE 3
- NORAD 12848
- 1981-094A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Greenland
Orbit ends over Greenland
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Aureole 3 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 Aureole 3, 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
In the news

Aureole 2, a French-Soviet aurora satellite from 1973, has fallen after almost 53 years in orbit
· Debris and close approaches ·
Summary
Over the Southern Ocean LIVE
Where is Aureole 3?
At 6:41:41 PM UTC Aureole 3 was over the Southern Ocean (70.1° S, 29° E), 1,003 km up, moving at 7.2 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Aureole 3?
A satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Sep 21, 1981.
Can I see Aureole 3?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Aureole 3, and nothing here estimates one.
General
- Operator
- Interkosmos
- State
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
- Built by
- Southern State Design Bureau
- Launched
- Mass
- about 1 t
- Operating
- No: its regular operations have ended
- Orbit class
- Low Earth 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
- 6:41 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:41 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 70.1° S, 29° E
- Altitude
- 1,003 km
- Speed
- 7.2 km/s (25,913 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight until 7:44 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 82.5°
- Orbital period
- 98.6 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.61
- This orbit
- 367 to 1,008 km
- In shadow
- 11 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,410 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 4:25 AM, 14 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 4:25 AM, 14 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Aureole 3, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Aureole 3 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
Aureole 3 shares its launch, 1981-094, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| SL-14 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, 4:25 AM, 14 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "AUREOLE 3",
"OBJECT_ID": "1981-094A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T04:25:49.716480",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.60791323,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.04539847,
"INCLINATION": 82.4626,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 156.6611,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 98.9272,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 266.3593,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 12848,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 28126,
"BSTAR": 0.00043372468,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00009837,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}