- Earth-watching satellite
- NORAD 25338
- 1998-030A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Antarctica
Orbit ends over Antarctica
In view from you
Nobody watches NOAA 15 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 NOAA 15, 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
Summary
Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is NOAA 15?
At 6:41:51 PM UTC NOAA 15 was over the Pacific Ocean (33.1° N, 173.4° W), 810 km up, moving at 7.45 km/s and in sunlight.
What is NOAA 15?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since May 13, 1998.
Can I see NOAA 15?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for NOAA 15, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- Lockheed Martin/East Windsor
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 1.4 t
- 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
- 6:41 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:41 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 33.1° N, 173.4° W
- Altitude
- 810 km
- Speed
- 7.45 km/s (26,816 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 98.5°
- Orbital period
- 100.9 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.27
- This orbit
- 792 to 805 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,130 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 6:14 AM, 12 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 6:14 AM, 12 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for NOAA 15, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to NOAA 15 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOAA 15 | 792 to 805 km | 101 minutes | about 1.4 t | 1998 |
| 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 |
| Sentinel-2A | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2015 |
| Sentinel-2B | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2017 |
| Sentinel-2C | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2024 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 6:14 AM, 12 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "NOAA 15",
"OBJECT_ID": "1998-030A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T06:14:03.905952",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.27181744,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00091495,
"INCLINATION": 98.5005,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 328.9633,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 286.9211,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 73.0966,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 25338,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 48184,
"BSTAR": 0.00007129832,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000131,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}