- Earth-watching satellite
- IRS B3
- NORAD 23827
- 1996-017A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Pacific Ocean
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches IRS-P3 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 IRS-P3, 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 Saturday, Oct 17 at 8:26 PM UTC, a fragment of NOAA 16 (NORAD 41399) was to pass within 719 m of IRS B3 (NORAD 23827). The chance was about 1 in 9,000.
Summary
Over Sweden LIVE
Where is IRS-P3?
At 5:39:21 PM UTC IRS-P3 was over Sweden (55.9° N, 13.8° E), 824 km up, moving at 7.45 km/s and in sunlight.
What is IRS-P3?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Mar 21, 1996.
Can I see IRS-P3?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for IRS-P3, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- Indian Space Research Organization
- State
- India, Republic of
- Built by
- ISRO Satellite Center
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 922 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, 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
- 5:39 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:39 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 55.9° N, 13.8° E
- Altitude
- 824 km
- Speed
- 7.45 km/s (26,806 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 99°
- Orbital period
- 101.1 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.24
- This orbit
- 808 to 812 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,150 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 3:53 AM, 13 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 3:53 AM, 13 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for IRS-P3, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- 1 reported. No close approach to IRS-P3 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
IRS-P3 shares its launch, 1996-017, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| PSLV R/B | 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IRS-P3 | 808 to 812 km | 101 minutes | 922 kg | 1996 |
| Sentinel-3A | 802 to 804 km | 101 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2016 |
| Sentinel-3B | 802 to 804 km | 101 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2018 |
| MetOp-SG A1 | 820 to 821 km | 101 minutes | about 4 t | 2025 |
| Metop-B | 818 to 823 km | 101 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2012 |
| Metop-C | 820 to 821 km | 101 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2018 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 3:53 AM, 13 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "IRS B3",
"OBJECT_ID": "1996-017A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T03:53:49.934400",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.23769609,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00024856,
"INCLINATION": 99.0182,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 339.402,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 236.259,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 123.8351,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 23827,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 59035,
"BSTAR": 0.000081777848,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.0000014,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}