- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- DMSP 5D-2 F8 (USA 26)
- NORAD 18123
- 1987-053A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Norwegian Sea
Orbit ends over the Greenland Sea
In view from you
Nobody watches DMSP F-8 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 DMSP F-8, 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
- Close approach
On Tuesday, Nov 3 at 7:00 AM UTC, a fragment of CZ-6A (NORAD 54341) was to pass within 181 m of DMSP 5D-2 F8 (USA 26) (NORAD 18123). The chance was about 1 in 9,000.
Summary
Over the North Sea LIVE
Where is DMSP F-8?
At 6:51:15 PM UTC DMSP F-8 was over the North Sea (59.7° N, 1.3° E), 828 km up, moving at 7.45 km/s and in sunlight.
What is DMSP F-8?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Jun 20, 1987.
Can I see DMSP F-8?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for DMSP F-8, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- US Air Force Space Division
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- GE Astro Space, East Windsor
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- 773 kg
- 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, 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
- 6:51 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:51 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 59.7° N, 1.3° E
- Altitude
- 828 km
- Speed
- 7.45 km/s (26,820 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 98.7°
- Orbital period
- 101.4 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.2
- This orbit
- 814 to 834 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,150 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 6:27 AM, 12 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 6:27 AM, 12 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for DMSP F-8, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- 1 reported. No close approach to DMSP F-8 is reported for the next three 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
DMSP F-8 shares its launch, 1987-053, with 2 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| DMSP 5D-2 F8 DEB | Debris |
| DMSP 5D-2 F8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DMSP F-8 | 814 to 834 km | 101 minutes | 773 kg | 1987 |
| Sentinel-5P | 826 to 828 km | 101 minutes | 820 kg | 2017 |
| Suomi NPP | 825 to 829 km | 101 minutes | about 2.1 t | 2011 |
| MetOp-SG A1 | 820 to 821 km | 101 minutes | about 4 t | 2025 |
| Metop-B | 818 to 823 km | 101 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2012 |
| Metop-C | 820 to 821 km | 101 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2018 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 6:27 AM, 12 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "DMSP 5D-2 F8 (USA 26)",
"OBJECT_ID": "1987-053A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T06:27:16.838496",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.19575291,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00134868,
"INCLINATION": 98.7316,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 136.3446,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 105.0594,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 255.2076,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 18123,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 3728,
"BSTAR": 0.000057741469,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 7.8e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}