- Earth-watching satellite
- QUIKSCAT
- NORAD 25789
- 1999-034A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Indian Ocean
Orbit ends over Mozambique
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches QuikScat 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 QuikScat, 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 it is up there for reaches the ground as pictures and measurements, not as a light in the sky.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over Antarctica LIVE
Where is QuikScat?
At 5:40:22 PM UTC QuikScat was over Antarctica (74.9° S, 25.5° E), 713 km up, moving at 7.52 km/s and in sunlight.
What is QuikScat?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Jun 20, 1999.
Can I see QuikScat?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for QuikScat, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- Ball Aerospace
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 970 kg
- Operating
- 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
- 5:40 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:40 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 74.9° S, 25.5° E
- Altitude
- 713 km
- Speed
- 7.52 km/s (27,061 km/h)
- Course
- south-west
- Light
- In sunlight until 6:35 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 98.2°
- Orbital period
- 99.2 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.52
- This orbit
- 650 to 784 km
- In shadow
- 33 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,960 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 9:03 AM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 9:03 AM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for QuikScat, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to QuikScat 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QuikScat | 650 to 784 km | 99 minutes | 970 kg | 1999 |
| Landsat 9 | 702 to 704 km | 99 minutes | about 2.7 t | 2021 |
| Landsat 8 | 702 to 703 km | 99 minutes | about 2.8 t | 2013 |
| Sentinel-1C | 695 to 697 km | 99 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2024 |
| Sentinel-1D | 695 to 697 km | 99 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2025 |
| Sentinel-1A | 693 to 695 km | 99 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2014 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 7, 2026, 9:03 AM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "QUIKSCAT",
"OBJECT_ID": "1999-034A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T09:03:59.143968",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.51802917,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00945294,
"INCLINATION": 98.2453,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 189.5354,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 201.6943,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 158.0237,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 25789,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 43329,
"BSTAR": 0.000088911619,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.0000033,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}