- Navigation satellite
- Military
- NAVSTAR 24 (USA 79)
- NORAD 21890
- 1992-009A
- Medium Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Bay of Biscay
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches GPS IIA-3 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-3, 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
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Indian Ocean LIVE
Where is GPS IIA-3?
At 6:20:47 PM UTC GPS IIA-3 was over the Indian Ocean (54.2° S, 106.3° E), 21,140 km up, moving at 3.8 km/s and in sunlight.
What is GPS IIA-3?
A navigation satellite in medium Earth orbit, in space since Feb 23, 1992.
Can I see GPS IIA-3?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for GPS IIA-3, 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
- 6:20 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:20 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 54.2° S, 106.3° E
- Altitude
- 21,140 km
- Speed
- 3.8 km/s (13,669 km/h)
- Course
- east
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 54.2°
- Orbital period
- 750.7 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 1.92
- This orbit
- 20,831 to 21,134 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,430 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 8:22 PM, 21 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 8:22 PM, 21 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for GPS IIA-3, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to GPS IIA-3 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
GPS IIA-3 shares its launch, 1992-009, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| DELTA 2 R/B(1) | Rocket body |
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, 8:22 PM, 21 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "NAVSTAR 24 (USA 79)",
"OBJECT_ID": "1992-009A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T20:22:51.477024",
"MEAN_MOTION": 1.91828539,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00555002,
"INCLINATION": 54.2298,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 161.0084,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 64.2357,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 293.1288,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 21890,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 24884,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 8.5e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}