- Communications satellite
- NORAD 20705
- 1990-063A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Indonesia
Orbit ends over the Arafura Sea
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches TDF 2 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 TDF 2, 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 reaches you from it reaches a dish or an antenna, not an eye.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Philippine Sea LIVE
Where is TDF 2?
At 5:35:21 PM UTC TDF 2 was over the Philippine Sea (15.2° N, 135.8° E), 36,364 km up, moving at 3.05 km/s and in sunlight.
What is TDF 2?
A communications satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Jul 24, 1990.
Can I see TDF 2?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for TDF 2, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- France Telecom
- State
- French Republic
- Built by
- Aerospatiale-Cannes
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 2.1 t
- 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
- 5:35 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:35 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 15.2° N, 135.8° E
- Altitude
- 36,364 km
- Speed
- 3.05 km/s (10,980 km/h)
- Course
- east
- Light
- In sunlight until 2:42 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 15.2°
- Orbital period
- 1,460.3 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 0.99
- This orbit
- 36,062 to 36,458 km
- In shadow
- 54 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,960 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 11:41 AM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 11:41 AM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for TDF 2, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to TDF 2 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
TDF 2 shares its launch, 1990-063, with 3 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| DFS 2 | Communications satellite |
| ARIANE 44L R/B | Rocket body |
| ARIANE 44L DEB (SPELDA) | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TDF 2 | 36,062 to 36,458 km | 1,460 minutes | about 2.1 t | 1990 |
| Hispasat 30W-6 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 6.1 t | 2018 |
| Amazonas Nexus | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2023 |
| ARSAT-1 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 3 t | 2014 |
| Astra 1N | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.3 t | 2011 |
| Hotbird 13F | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.5 t | 2022 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 7, 2026, 11:41 AM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "TDF 2",
"OBJECT_ID": "1990-063A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T11:41:33.931392",
"MEAN_MOTION": 0.98611312,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00464457,
"INCLINATION": 15.2158,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 357.2755,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 327.1742,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 40.4857,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 20705,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 13398,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000254,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}