Viking

LIVE
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Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/16614

  • VIKING
  • NORAD 16614
  • 1986-019B
  • Highly elliptical orbit

Current orbit

Where Viking is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over the Pacific Ocean

Orbit ends over the Bay of Bengal

Sunlit since

Enters the Earth’s shadow

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Viking 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 Viking, 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 Antarctica LIVE

Where is Viking?

At 5:35:26 PM UTC Viking was over Antarctica (81.2° S, 54.1° E), 4,919 km up, moving at 6.42 km/s and in sunlight.

What is Viking?

A satellite in a highly elliptical orbit, in space since Feb 22, 1986.

Can I see Viking?

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

General

Operator
Swedish Space Corporation
State
Sweden, Kingdom of
Built by
Saab Space, Linkoping factory
Launched
Mass
260 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
5:35 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
5:35 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
81.2° S, 54.1° E
Altitude
4,919 km
Speed
6.42 km/s (23,123 km/h)
Course
west
Light
In sunlight until 9:18 PM UTC
Inclination
98.8°
Orbital period
261.5 minutes
Orbits per day
5.51
This orbit
792 to 13,541 km
In shadow
10 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 5,140 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 6, 2026, 5:06 PM, 2 days old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 6, 2026, 5:06 PM, 2 days old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Viking, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to Viking 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

Viking shares its launch, 1986-019, with 25 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.

BodyWhat it is
SPOT 1Earth-watching satellite
ARIANE 1 R/BRocket body
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
VIKING DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEB *Debris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris
ARIANE 1 DEBDebris

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 6, 2026, 5:06 PM, 2 days old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "VIKING",
  "OBJECT_ID": "1986-019B",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-06T17:06:35.221824",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 5.5061245,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.47060886,
  "INCLINATION": 98.8289,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 281.6248,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 174.1925,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 359.6792,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 16614,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 81809,
  "BSTAR": 0.00070347622,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 6.6e-7,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}