- Communications satellite
- ORBCOMM FM 16
- NORAD 25417
- 1998-046E
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Bolivia
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Orbcomm B4 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 Orbcomm B4, 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 Australia LIVE
Where is Orbcomm B4?
At 6:21:33 PM UTC Orbcomm B4 was over Australia (17.7° S, 144.9° E), 764 km up, moving at 7.47 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Orbcomm B4?
A communications satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Aug 2, 1998.
Can I see Orbcomm B4?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Orbcomm B4, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- Orbcomm Inc.
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- OSC Germantown
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 42 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
- 6:21 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:21 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 17.7° S, 144.9° E
- Altitude
- 764 km
- Speed
- 7.47 km/s (26,896 km/h)
- Course
- south-east
- Light
- In sunlight until 7:24 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 45°
- Orbital period
- 100 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.4
- This orbit
- 754 to 764 km
- In shadow
- 35 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,050 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 5:45 AM, 12 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 5:45 AM, 12 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Orbcomm B4, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Orbcomm B4 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
Orbcomm B4 shares its launch, 1998-046, with 9 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| ORBCOMM FM 17 | Communications satellite |
| ORBCOMM FM 18 | Communications satellite |
| ORBCOMM FM 19 | Communications satellite |
| ORBCOMM FM 20 | Communications satellite |
| ORBCOMM FM 15 | Communications satellite |
| ORBCOMM FM 14 | Communications satellite |
| ORBCOMM FM 13 | Communications satellite |
| ORBCOMM FM 16 DEB | Debris |
| ORBCOMM FM 16 DEB | Debris |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orbcomm B4 | 754 to 764 km | 100 minutes | 42 kg | 1998 |
| 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, 5:45 AM, 12 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "ORBCOMM FM 16",
"OBJECT_ID": "1998-046E",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T05:45:27.041184",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.40303436,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00067324,
"INCLINATION": 44.9934,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 272.318,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 329.0061,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 31.039,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 25417,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 47761,
"BSTAR": 0.00044744098,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00001289,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}