CAT 04/Thesee

LIVE
See on the map

Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/13011

  • CAT 4
  • NORAD 13011
  • 1981-122B
  • Highly elliptical orbit

Current orbit

Where CAT 04/Thesee is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over Colombia

Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean

Sunlit since

Enters the Earth’s shadow

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches CAT 04/Thesee 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 04/Thesee, 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

  1. Launch

    Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source

Summary

Over the Indian Ocean LIVE

Where is CAT 04/Thesee?

At 5:40:00 PM UTC CAT 04/Thesee was over the Indian Ocean (4.4° S, 57.1° E), 24,939 km up, moving at 2.12 km/s and in sunlight.

What is CAT 04/Thesee?

A satellite in a highly elliptical orbit, in space since Dec 20, 1981.

Can I see CAT 04/Thesee?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for CAT 04/Thesee, and nothing here estimates one.

General

Operator
European Space Agency
State
European Space Agency
Built by
Aeritalia Space Systems
Launched
Mass
661 kg
Operating
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
5:40 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
5:40 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
4.4° S, 57.1° E
Altitude
24,939 km
Speed
2.12 km/s (7,621 km/h)
Course
north-west
Light
In sunlight until 7:45 PM UTC
Inclination
10.7°
Orbital period
434.6 minutes
Orbits per day
3.31
This orbit
270 to 24,993 km
In shadow
34 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 7,610 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 7, 2026, 9:37 PM, 20 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 9:37 PM, 20 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for CAT 04/Thesee, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to CAT 04/Thesee 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.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

Launched with

CAT 04/Thesee shares its launch, 1981-122, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.

BodyWhat it is
MARECS ACommunications satellite

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, 9:37 PM, 20 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "CAT 4",
  "OBJECT_ID": "1981-122B",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-07T21:37:10.276032",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 3.31368299,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.65027963,
  "INCLINATION": 10.67,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 34.4384,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 156.9807,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 255.2594,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 13011,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 36562,
  "BSTAR": 0.00069089769,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.0000306,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}