- Communications satellite
- SCD 2
- NORAD 25504
- 1998-060A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Pacific Ocean
Orbit ends over the Coral Sea
In the Earth’s shadow since
Back in sunlight
In view from you
Nobody watches SCD-2 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 SCD-2, 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 Indonesia LIVE
Where is SCD-2?
At 6:03:36 PM UTC SCD-2 was over Indonesia (2.1° N, 117.4° E), 728 km up, moving at 7.5 km/s and in the Earth’s shadow.
What is SCD-2?
A communications satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Oct 23, 1998.
Can I see SCD-2?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for SCD-2, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- National Institute of Space Research
- State
- Brazil, Federal Republic of
- Built by
- National Institute of Space Research
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 115 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
- 6:03 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:03 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 2.1° N, 117.4° E
- Altitude
- 728 km
- Speed
- 7.5 km/s (26,996 km/h)
- Course
- south-east
- Light
- In the Earth’s shadow until 6:11 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 25°
- Orbital period
- 99.6 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.46
- This orbit
- 733 to 757 km
- In shadow
- 35 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,990 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 6:19 AM, 11 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 6:19 AM, 11 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for SCD-2, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to SCD-2 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
SCD-2 shares its launch, 1998-060, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| PEGASUS R/B | Rocket body |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SCD-2 | 733 to 757 km | 100 minutes | 115 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, 6:19 AM, 11 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "SCD 2",
"OBJECT_ID": "1998-060A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T06:19:31.786176",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.45569667,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00166511,
"INCLINATION": 24.995,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 263.6117,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 204.9026,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 300.6557,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 25504,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 48119,
"BSTAR": 0.000072935679,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000444,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}