- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- NORAD 1580
- 1965-072A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Australia
Orbit ends over Australia
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches OPS 8068 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 OPS 8068, 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 it is up there for reaches the ground as pictures and measurements, not as a light in the sky.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Atlantic Ocean LIVE
Where is OPS 8068?
At 6:52:09 PM UTC OPS 8068 was over the Atlantic Ocean (52.6° N, 35.1° W), 939 km up, moving at 7.32 km/s and in sunlight.
What is OPS 8068?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Sep 10, 1965.
Can I see OPS 8068?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for OPS 8068, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- US Air Force Space Systems Division
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- RCA Astro Electronics (Astro Space)
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- 72 kg
- Operating
- Orbit class
- Low Earth orbit
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
- 6:52 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:52 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 52.6° N, 35.1° W
- Altitude
- 939 km
- Speed
- 7.32 km/s (26,338 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight until 7:55 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 98.4°
- Orbital period
- 100.7 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.3
- This orbit
- 626 to 953 km
- In shadow
- 24 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,320 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 3:09 AM, 15 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 3:09 AM, 15 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for OPS 8068, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to OPS 8068 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
OPS 8068 shares its launch, 1965-072, with 2 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| THOR ALTAIR R/B | Rocket body |
| THOR ALTAIR 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OPS 8068 | 626 to 953 km | 101 minutes | 72 kg | 1965 |
| Sentinel-2A | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2015 |
| Sentinel-2B | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2017 |
| Sentinel-2C | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2024 |
| Sentinel-3A | 802 to 804 km | 101 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2016 |
| Sentinel-3B | 802 to 804 km | 101 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2018 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 3:09 AM, 15 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "OPS 8068",
"OBJECT_ID": "1965-072A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T03:09:52.992576",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.29728661,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.02282852,
"INCLINATION": 98.4386,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 104.1383,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 340.738,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 18.5275,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 1580,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 15358,
"BSTAR": 0.000078428473,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000216,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}