Explorer 7

LIVE
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Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/22

  • EXPLORER 7
  • NORAD 22
  • 1959-009A
  • Low Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where Explorer 7 is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over the Solomon Sea

Orbit ends over the Timor Sea

Sunlit since

Enters the Earth’s shadow

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Explorer 7 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 Explorer 7, 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

  1. Launch

    Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source

Summary

Over Canada LIVE

Where is Explorer 7?

At 5:26:20 PM UTC Explorer 7 was over Canada (50.2° N, 109.6° W), 488 km up, moving at 7.62 km/s and in sunlight.

What is Explorer 7?

A satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Oct 13, 1959.

Can I see Explorer 7?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Explorer 7, and nothing here estimates one.

General

Operator
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
State
United States of America
Built by
U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency
Launched
Mass
41 kg
Operating
Orbit class
Low Earth orbit

From GCAT, Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0: the operator, the state, the manufacturer, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.

Latest orbital data

Position received
5:26 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
5:26 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
50.2° N, 109.6° W
Altitude
488 km
Speed
7.62 km/s (27,432 km/h)
Course
east
Light
In sunlight until 6:14 PM UTC
Inclination
50.2°
Orbital period
94 minutes
Orbits per day
15.32
This orbit
421 to 521 km
In shadow
27 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 1,540 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 8, 2026, 6:04 AM, 11 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 6:04 AM, 11 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Explorer 7, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to Explorer 7 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, 6:04 AM, 11 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "EXPLORER 7",
  "OBJECT_ID": "1959-009A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-08T06:04:26.559552",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 15.31822725,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00724776,
  "INCLINATION": 50.2387,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 106.0502,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 347.1266,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 12.7844,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 22,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 82241,
  "BSTAR": 0.00052701065,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00017506,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}