Polar

LIVE
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Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/23802

  • POLAR
  • NORAD 23802
  • 1996-013A
  • Highly elliptical orbit

Current orbit

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

Orbit began over Australia

Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean

Sunlit since

Enters the Earth’s shadow

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Polar 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 Polar, 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 the Pacific Ocean LIVE

Where is Polar?

At 5:35:22 PM UTC Polar was over the Pacific Ocean (27.1° S, 91.5° W), 27,511 km up, moving at 3.51 km/s and in sunlight.

What is Polar?

A satellite in a highly elliptical orbit, in space since Feb 24, 1996.

Can I see Polar?

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

General

Operator
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
State
United States of America
Built by
Lockheed Martin Telecommunications/East Windsor
Launched
Mass
about 1.3 t
Operating
Orbit class
Highly elliptical 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
5:35 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
5:35 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
27.1° S, 91.5° W
Altitude
27,511 km
Speed
3.51 km/s (12,625 km/h)
Course
north-west
Light
In sunlight until 8:59 AM UTC
Inclination
80°
Orbital period
1,109 minutes
Orbits per day
1.3
This orbit
5,638 to 52,585 km
In shadow
32 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 7,710 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 2, 2026, 4:21 PM, 6 days old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 2, 2026, 4:21 PM, 6 days old.

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

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to Polar 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 2, 2026, 4:21 PM, 6 days old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "POLAR",
  "OBJECT_ID": "1996-013A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-02T16:21:32.464800",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 1.29845469,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.66141652,
  "INCLINATION": 80.034,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 225.3774,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 204.3273,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 99.6169,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 23802,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 14665,
  "BSTAR": 0,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -3.3e-7,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}