- Communications satellite
- INFORMATOR 1
- NORAD 21087
- 1991-006A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Pacific Ocean
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Informator-1 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 Informator-1, 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
- Close approach
On Thursday, Oct 29 at 9:52 PM UTC, a fragment of Cosmos 1275 (NORAD 13462) was to pass within 519 m of Informator 1 (NORAD 21087). The chance was about 1 in 900.
Summary
Over the Arctic Ocean LIVE
Where is Informator-1?
At 5:35:34 PM UTC Informator-1 was over the Arctic Ocean (82.3° N, 179.4° W), 996 km up, moving at 7.36 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Informator-1?
A communications satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Jan 29, 1991.
Can I see Informator-1?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Informator-1, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- Ministry of Geology and Conservation
- State
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
- Built by
- PO Polyot
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 800 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, 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
- 82.3° N, 179.4° W
- Altitude
- 996 km
- Speed
- 7.36 km/s (26,492 km/h)
- Course
- south-east
- Light
- In sunlight until 6:42 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 82.9°
- Orbital period
- 104.7 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 13.76
- This orbit
- 951 to 1,003 km
- In shadow
- 33 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,400 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 5:01 AM, 12 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 5:01 AM, 12 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Informator-1, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- 1 reported. No close approach to Informator-1 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
Informator-1 shares its launch, 1991-006, with 2 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Informator-1 | 951 to 1,003 km | 105 minutes | 800 kg | 1991 |
| BlueWalker 3 | 443 to 453 km | 94 minutes | about 1.5 t | 2022 |
| 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 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 5:01 AM, 12 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "INFORMATOR 1",
"OBJECT_ID": "1991-006A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T05:01:58.735776",
"MEAN_MOTION": 13.75533156,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00349544,
"INCLINATION": 82.9465,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 18.3784,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 191.632,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 191.9214,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 21087,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 79534,
"BSTAR": 0.000063221977,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 7.6e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}