- Military
- NORAD 20641
- 1990-050A
- Highly elliptical orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Southern Ocean
Orbit ends over the Southern Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches USA 59 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 USA 59, 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
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over Russia LIVE
Where is USA 59?
At 7:03:32 PM UTC USA 59 was over Russia (61.8° N, 138° E), 11,257 km up, moving at 3.74 km/s and in sunlight.
What is USA 59?
A satellite in a highly elliptical orbit, in space since Jun 8, 1990.
Can I see USA 59?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for USA 59, and nothing here estimates one.
General
- Operator
- National Reconnaissance Office
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- Naval Research Lab
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 3 t
- Operating
- No: its regular operations have ended
- Orbit class
- Highly elliptical orbit
From GCAT, Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0: the operator, the state, the manufacturer, 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
- 7:03 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 7:03 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 61.8° N, 138° E
- Altitude
- 11,257 km
- Speed
- 3.74 km/s (13,464 km/h)
- Course
- east
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 63.4°
- Orbital period
- 239 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 6.03
- This orbit
- 1,180 to 11,574 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 6,580 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 9:24 AM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 9:24 AM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for USA 59, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to USA 59 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
USA 59 shares its launch, 1990-050, with 3 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
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 7, 2026, 9:24 AM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "USA 59",
"OBJECT_ID": "1990-050A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T09:24:52.655904",
"MEAN_MOTION": 6.0259812,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.40741008,
"INCLINATION": 63.4169,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 1.467,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 266.5259,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 47.4214,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 20641,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 5496,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -4.9e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}