- EQUATOR S
- NORAD 25068
- 1997-075B
- Highly elliptical orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Pacific Ocean
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches Equator-S 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 Equator-S, 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
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is Equator-S?
At 5:40:52 PM UTC Equator-S was over the Pacific Ocean (2° S, 153° E), 48,515 km up, moving at 2.15 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Equator-S?
A satellite in a highly elliptical orbit, in space since Dec 2, 1997.
Can I see Equator-S?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Equator-S, and nothing here estimates one.
General
- Operator
- Max Planck Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik
- State
- Germany, Federal Republic of
- Built by
- Max Planck Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik
- Launched
- Mass
- 197 kg
- 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
- 5:40 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:40 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 2° S, 153° E
- Altitude
- 48,515 km
- Speed
- 2.15 km/s (7,722 km/h)
- Course
- west
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 2°
- Orbital period
- 1,336 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 1.08
- This orbit
- 455 to 67,166 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 8,170 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 11:46 PM, 17 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 11:46 PM, 17 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Equator-S, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Equator-S 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.
Launched with
Equator-S shares its launch, 1997-075, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| JCSAT 5 | Communications 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.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 7, 2026, 11:46 PM, 17 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "EQUATOR S",
"OBJECT_ID": "1997-075B",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T23:46:52.994496",
"MEAN_MOTION": 1.07784254,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.82998284,
"INCLINATION": 2.0192,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 211.9456,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 52.8145,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 356.7164,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 25068,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 11401,
"BSTAR": 0.0016890006,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000154,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}