Vanguard III

LIVE
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Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/20

  • VANGUARD 3
  • NORAD 20
  • 1959-007A
  • Medium Earth orbit

Current orbit

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

Orbit began over the Atlantic Ocean

Orbit ends over the United States of America

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Vanguard III 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 Vanguard III, 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 the Indian Ocean LIVE

Where is Vanguard III?

At 5:26:50 PM UTC Vanguard III was over the Indian Ocean (27.2° S, 105.7° E), 3,141 km up, moving at 5.95 km/s and in sunlight.

What is Vanguard III?

A satellite in medium Earth orbit, in space since Sep 18, 1959.

Can I see Vanguard III?

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

General

Operator
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
State
United States of America
Built by
Naval Research Lab
Launched
Mass
23 kg
Operating
Orbit class
Medium Earth 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
5:26 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
5:26 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
27.2° S, 105.7° E
Altitude
3,141 km
Speed
5.95 km/s (21,416 km/h)
Course
east
Light
In sunlight
Inclination
33.3°
Orbital period
123.9 minutes
Orbits per day
11.62
This orbit
512 to 3,205 km
In shadow
None of this orbit
In view from
Within 4,310 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 8, 2026, 3:24 AM, 14 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 3:24 AM, 14 hours old.

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

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to Vanguard III 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.

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 3:24 AM, 14 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "VANGUARD 3",
  "OBJECT_ID": "1959-007A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-08T03:24:18.849312",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 11.62115373,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.16348254,
  "INCLINATION": 33.3383,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 108.5522,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 105.4897,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 273.1563,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 20,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 50136,
  "BSTAR": 0.00070845601,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00001735,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}