GPS IIA-2

LIVE
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Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/21552

  • Navigation satellite
  • Military
  • NAVSTAR 23 (USA 71)
  • NORAD 21552
  • 1991-047A
  • Medium Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where GPS IIA-2 is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
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Orbit began over the Atlantic Ocean

Orbit ends over the East China Sea

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches GPS IIA-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 GPS IIA-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 far too high and too faint for the naked eye. What you notice of it is a position fix, and the card above says whether it is above your horizon to give you one.

Timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source

Summary

Over Iran LIVE

Where is GPS IIA-2?

At 6:21:08 PM UTC GPS IIA-2 was over Iran (32.7° N, 49.4° E), 20,996 km up, moving at 3.82 km/s and in sunlight.

What is GPS IIA-2?

A navigation satellite in medium Earth orbit, in space since Jul 4, 1991.

Can I see GPS IIA-2?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for GPS IIA-2, and nothing here estimates one; receivers on the ground use its signals instead, whenever it is above their horizon.

General

Operator
US Air Force Space Systems Division
State
United States of America
Built by
Rockwell/Seal Beach
What it is
Navigation satellite
Military
Yes: a defence organisation flies it
Launched
Mass
860 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, what it is for, 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
6:21 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
6:21 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
32.7° N, 49.4° E
Altitude
20,996 km
Speed
3.82 km/s (13,738 km/h)
Course
north
Light
In sunlight
Inclination
56.5°
Orbital period
750.6 minutes
Orbits per day
1.92
This orbit
20,891 to 21,068 km
In shadow
None of this orbit
In view from
Within 7,420 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 8, 2026, 4:29 AM, 13 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 4:29 AM, 13 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for GPS IIA-2, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to GPS IIA-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.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 4:29 AM, 13 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "NAVSTAR 23 (USA 71)",
  "OBJECT_ID": "1991-047A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-08T04:29:53.274624",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 1.91858843,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00324018,
  "INCLINATION": 56.4939,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 347.4806,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 139.7615,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 222.2716,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 21552,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 25415,
  "BSTAR": 0,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -9.4e-7,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}