- Earth-watching satellite
- RADARSAT
- NORAD 23710
- 1995-059A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Norwegian Sea
Orbit ends over Greenland
In view from you
Nobody watches Radarsat 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 Radarsat, 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 it is up there for reaches the ground as pictures and measurements, not as a light in the sky.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
- Close approach
On Monday, Nov 2 at 4:42 PM UTC, a fragment of NOAA 16 (NORAD 41272) was to pass within 468 m of Radarsat (NORAD 23710). The chance was about 1 in 2,000.
Summary
Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is Radarsat?
At 5:35:30 PM UTC Radarsat was over the Pacific Ocean (56.2° S, 175° E), 806 km up, moving at 7.45 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Radarsat?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Nov 4, 1995.
Can I see Radarsat?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Radarsat, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- Canadian Space Agency
- State
- Canada
- Built by
- Spar Aerospace Space Systems
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 2.8 t
- Operating
- 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
- 56.2° S, 175° E
- Altitude
- 806 km
- Speed
- 7.45 km/s (26,816 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 98.5°
- Orbital period
- 100.5 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.32
- This orbit
- 780 to 781 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,120 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 6:25 AM, 11 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 6:25 AM, 11 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Radarsat, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- 1 reported. No close approach to Radarsat 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
Radarsat shares its launch, 1995-059, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| SURFSAT | Satellite |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radarsat | 780 to 781 km | 100 minutes | about 2.8 t | 1995 |
| Sentinel-2A | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2015 |
| Sentinel-2B | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2017 |
| Sentinel-2C | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2024 |
| Envisat | 761 to 762 km | 100 minutes | about 8.1 t | 2002 |
| Sentinel-3A | 802 to 804 km | 101 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2016 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 6:25 AM, 11 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "RADARSAT",
"OBJECT_ID": "1995-059A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T06:25:50.323584",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.3246153,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00010458,
"INCLINATION": 98.5479,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 319.2335,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 72.0018,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 288.128,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 23710,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 61897,
"BSTAR": 0.00011421595,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000266,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}