- Communications satellite
- AFRISTAR
- NORAD 25515
- 1998-063A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Indian Ocean
Orbit ends over the Indian Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches Afristar 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 Afristar, 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 Indian Ocean LIVE
Where is Afristar?
At 8:51:40 AM UTC Afristar was over the Indian Ocean (0.1° N, 46° E), 36,119 km up, moving at 3.06 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Afristar?
A communications satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Oct 28, 1998.
Can I see Afristar?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Afristar, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- Worldspace Inc.
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- Matra Marconi Space (Toulouse)
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 2.7 t
- Operating
- No: its regular operations have ended
- Orbit class
- Inclined geosynchronous
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
- 8:51 AM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 8:51 AM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 0.1° N, 46° E
- Altitude
- 36,119 km
- Speed
- 3.06 km/s (11,030 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 10.5°
- Orbital period
- 1,454.5 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 0.99
- This orbit
- 36,121 to 36,171 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,950 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 9:27 PM, 11 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 9:27 PM, 11 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Afristar, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Afristar has been reported publicly in the past thirty days.
From Space-Track’s public conjunction messages; the latest report was issued Nov 9, 2026, 5:39 AM, 2 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
Afristar shares its launch, 1998-063, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| AMC-5 (GE-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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afristar | 36,121 to 36,171 km | 1,454 minutes | about 2.7 t | 1998 |
| 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 |
| Hotbird 13F | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.5 t | 2022 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 9:27 PM, 11 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "AFRISTAR",
"OBJECT_ID": "1998-063A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T21:27:08.468928",
"MEAN_MOTION": 0.99006146,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00059329,
"INCLINATION": 10.54,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 48.4112,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 185.479,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 184.1716,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 25515,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 10199,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 5.9e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}