- Communications satellite
- DIRECTV 6 (TEMPO 2)
- NORAD 24748
- 1997-011A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Atlantic Ocean
Orbit ends over the Atlantic Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches Tempo 2 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 Tempo 2, 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 reaches you from it reaches a dish or an antenna, not an eye.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over Liberia LIVE
Where is Tempo 2?
At 8:39:13 AM UTC Tempo 2 was over Liberia (7.2° N, 8.8° W), 36,240 km up, moving at 3.06 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Tempo 2?
A communications satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Mar 8, 1997.
Can I see Tempo 2?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Tempo 2, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- Tempo Satellite Inc.
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- SS/Loral
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 3.6 t
- Operating
- Orbit class
- Inclined geosynchronous
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
- 8:39 AM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 8:39 AM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 7.2° N, 8.8° W
- Altitude
- 36,240 km
- Speed
- 3.06 km/s (10,998 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 13.3°
- Orbital period
- 1,454.1 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 0.99
- This orbit
- 36,031 to 36,245 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,950 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 10:58 PM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 10:58 PM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Tempo 2, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Tempo 2 has been reported publicly in the past thirty days.
From Space-Track’s public conjunction messages; the latest report was issued Nov 9, 2026, 5:39 AM, 2 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tempo 2 | 36,031 to 36,245 km | 1,454 minutes | about 3.6 t | 1997 |
| Hispasat 30W-6 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 6.1 t | 2018 |
| Amazonas Nexus | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2023 |
| ARSAT-1 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 3 t | 2014 |
| Astra 1N | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.3 t | 2011 |
| Hotbird 13F | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.5 t | 2022 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 7, 2026, 10:58 PM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "DIRECTV 6 (TEMPO 2)",
"OBJECT_ID": "1997-011A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T22:58:21.575424",
"MEAN_MOTION": 0.99033129,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00251512,
"INCLINATION": 13.3079,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 21.6519,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 313.1927,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 53.7312,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 24748,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 10791,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.000002,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}