- Communications satellite
- ORBCOMM FM 15
- NORAD 25418
- 1998-046F
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Chile
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Orbcomm B3 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 B3, 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 the Atlantic Ocean LIVE
Where is Orbcomm B3?
At 6:21:22 PM UTC Orbcomm B3 was over the Atlantic Ocean (0.2° S, 47° W), 755 km up, moving at 7.48 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Orbcomm B3?
A communications satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Aug 2, 1998.
Can I see Orbcomm B3?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Orbcomm B3, 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
- Yes
- 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
- 0.2° S, 47° W
- Altitude
- 755 km
- Speed
- 7.48 km/s (26,932 km/h)
- Course
- north-east
- Light
- In sunlight until 6:39 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 45°
- Orbital period
- 100 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.4
- This orbit
- 756 to 765 km
- In shadow
- 34 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,030 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 3:42 PM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 3:42 PM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Orbcomm B3, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Orbcomm B3 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 B3 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 16 | 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 B3 | 756 to 765 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 7, 2026, 3:42 PM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "ORBCOMM FM 15",
"OBJECT_ID": "1998-046F",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T15:42:55.215072",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.39912729,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00063656,
"INCLINATION": 44.9975,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 281.8472,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 322.5479,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 37.4926,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 25418,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 47750,
"BSTAR": 0.00037220937,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00001039,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}