- Military
- USA 7
- NORAD 15453
- 1984-129A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Atlantic Ocean
Orbit ends over the Atlantic Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches DSP F12 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 DSP F12, 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 DSP F12?
At 6:21:49 PM UTC DSP F12 was over the Atlantic Ocean (1.9° S, 13.1° W), 36,176 km up, moving at 3.06 km/s and in sunlight.
What is DSP F12?
A satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Dec 22, 1984.
Can I see DSP F12?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for DSP F12, and nothing here estimates one.
General
- Operator
- US Air Force Space Division
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- TRW Inc.
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 1.7 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
- 6:21 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:21 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 1.9° S, 13.1° W
- Altitude
- 36,176 km
- Speed
- 3.06 km/s (11,020 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In sunlight until 12:16 AM UTC
- Inclination
- 11.3°
- Orbital period
- 1,456.6 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 0.99
- This orbit
- 36,169 to 36,207 km
- In shadow
- 53 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,950 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 7:29 AM, 10 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 7:29 AM, 10 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for DSP F12, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to DSP F12 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
DSP F12 shares its launch, 1984-129, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| TITAN 34D 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, 7:29 AM, 10 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "USA 7",
"OBJECT_ID": "1984-129A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T07:29:13.761312",
"MEAN_MOTION": 0.98859569,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00044635,
"INCLINATION": 11.2631,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 319.9189,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 294.9989,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 253.8748,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 15453,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 2747,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000234,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}