- Earth-watching satellite
- METEOSAT 3
- NORAD 19215
- 1988-051A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Peru
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Meteosat 3 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 Meteosat 3, 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 Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is Meteosat 3?
At 5:37:08 PM UTC Meteosat 3 was over the Pacific Ocean (12.7° S, 88.8° W), 36,739 km up, moving at 3.04 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Meteosat 3?
A satellite that watches the Earth in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Jun 15, 1988.
Can I see Meteosat 3?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Meteosat 3, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- European Meteorological Satellite Organization
- State
- European Meteorological Satellite Organization
- Built by
- Aerospatiale-Cannes
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 322 kg
- Operating
- Orbit class
- Inclined geosynchronous
From GCAT, Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0: the operator, the state, the manufacturer, what it is for, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 5:37 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:37 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 12.7° S, 88.8° W
- Altitude
- 36,739 km
- Speed
- 3.04 km/s (10,948 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight until 5:34 AM UTC
- Inclination
- 14.2°
- Orbital period
- 1,485.3 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 0.97
- This orbit
- 36,726 to 36,766 km
- In shadow
- 63 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,970 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 12:19 AM, 17 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 12:19 AM, 17 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Meteosat 3, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Meteosat 3 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
Meteosat 3 shares its launch, 1988-051, with 3 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| PAS 1 | Communications satellite |
| ARIANE 44LP DEB | Debris |
| METEOSAT 3 AKM | 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meteosat 3 | 36,726 to 36,766 km | 1,485 minutes | 322 kg | 1988 |
| GOES-19 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5 t | 2024 |
| Meteosat-12 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 3.8 t | 2022 |
| Meteosat-11 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 2 t | 2015 |
| GOES-16 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.2 t | 2016 |
| GOES-17 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.2 t | 2018 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 12:19 AM, 17 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "METEOSAT 3",
"OBJECT_ID": "1988-051A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T00:19:13.827072",
"MEAN_MOTION": 0.9694703,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00046759,
"INCLINATION": 14.2476,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 340.9656,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 307.366,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 44.2771,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 19215,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 12479,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -9.6e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}