- Communications satellite
- IRIDIUM 29
- NORAD 24944
- 1997-051A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Arctic Ocean
Orbit ends over the Arctic Ocean
In the Earth’s shadow since
Back in sunlight
In view from you
Nobody watches Iridium 29 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 Iridium 29, 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
- Close approach
On Thursday, Nov 5 at 10:00 PM UTC, a fragment of Meteor 2-8 (NORAD 36355) was to pass within 416 m of Iridium 29 (NORAD 24944). The chance was about 1 in 4,000.
Summary
Over the Philippine Sea LIVE
Where is Iridium 29?
At 6:45:26 PM UTC Iridium 29 was over the Philippine Sea (32.1° N, 138.3° E), 772 km up, moving at 7.47 km/s and in the Earth’s shadow.
What is Iridium 29?
A communications satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Sep 14, 1997.
Can I see Iridium 29?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Iridium 29, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- Iridium Inc.
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- Motorola Satellite Communications
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 662 kg
- Operating
- No: its regular operations have ended
- 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
- 6:45 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:45 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 32.1° N, 138.3° E
- Altitude
- 772 km
- Speed
- 7.47 km/s (26,896 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In the Earth’s shadow until 6:51 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 86.4°
- Orbital period
- 100.2 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.37
- This orbit
- 764 to 768 km
- In shadow
- 17 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,060 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 8:02 AM, 10 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 8:02 AM, 10 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Iridium 29, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- 1 reported. No close approach to Iridium 29 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
Iridium 29 shares its launch, 1997-051, with 110 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iridium 29 | 764 to 768 km | 100 minutes | 662 kg | 1997 |
| BlueWalker 3 | 443 to 453 km | 94 minutes | about 1.5 t | 2022 |
| 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 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 8:02 AM, 10 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "IRIDIUM 29",
"OBJECT_ID": "1997-051A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T08:02:37.480128",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.36872783,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00024297,
"INCLINATION": 86.391,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 290.1126,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 87.4406,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 272.707,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 24944,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 52637,
"BSTAR": 0.0001443332,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000446,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}