- Communications satellite
- ARABSAT 3A
- NORAD 25638
- 1999-009A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Arafura Sea
Orbit ends over the Arafura Sea
In view from you
Nobody watches Arabsat 3A 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 Arabsat 3A, 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 Philippine Sea LIVE
Where is Arabsat 3A?
At 6:41:43 PM UTC Arabsat 3A was over the Philippine Sea (11.8° N, 137.4° E), 35,827 km up, moving at 3.07 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Arabsat 3A?
A communications satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Feb 26, 1999.
Can I see Arabsat 3A?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Arabsat 3A, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- Arabsat, Arab League
- State
- Arabsat
- Built by
- Alcatel Space, Centre spatiale de Cannes-Mandelieu
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 2.7 t
- Operating
- 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
- 6:41 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:41 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 11.8° N, 137.4° E
- Altitude
- 35,827 km
- Speed
- 3.07 km/s (11,063 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 12.2°
- Orbital period
- 1,437.6 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 1
- This orbit
- 35,802 to 35,832 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,940 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 1:22 PM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 1:22 PM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Arabsat 3A, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Arabsat 3A 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
Arabsat 3A shares its launch, 1999-009, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| SKYNET 4E | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabsat 3A | 35,802 to 35,832 km | 1,438 minutes | about 2.7 t | 1999 |
| 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 7, 2026, 1:22 PM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "ARABSAT 3A",
"OBJECT_ID": "1999-009A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T13:22:54.219936",
"MEAN_MOTION": 1.00167297,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00034916,
"INCLINATION": 12.1663,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 31.3034,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 288.0564,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 66.2789,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 25638,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 10139,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000315,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}