- MDS 1
- NORAD 27367
- 2002-003A
- Highly elliptical orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Philippine Sea
Orbit ends over India
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Tsubasa 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 Tsubasa, 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 to see with the naked eye from anywhere on Earth.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is Tsubasa?
At 5:33:36 PM UTC Tsubasa was over the Pacific Ocean (19.5° S, 83.4° W), 9,352 km up, moving at 3.93 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Tsubasa?
A satellite in a highly elliptical orbit, in space since Feb 4, 2002.
Can I see Tsubasa?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Tsubasa, and nothing here estimates one.
General
- Operator
- National Space Development Adminstration
- State
- Japan (Nippon), State of
- Built by
- NEC Toshiba Space, Kamoi works
- Launched
- Mass
- 449 kg
- Operating
- No: its regular operations have ended
- Orbit class
- Highly elliptical orbit
From GCAT, Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0: the operator, the state, the manufacturer, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 5:33 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:33 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 19.5° S, 83.4° W
- Altitude
- 9,352 km
- Speed
- 3.93 km/s (14,152 km/h)
- Course
- south-east
- Light
- In sunlight until 7:11 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 28.5°
- Orbital period
- 199.5 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 7.22
- This orbit
- 275 to 9,598 km
- In shadow
- 27 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 6,280 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 5:57 AM, 11 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 5:57 AM, 11 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Tsubasa, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Tsubasa 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
Tsubasa shares its launch, 2002-003, with 4 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| DASH/VEP 3 | Satellite |
| H-2A R/B | Rocket body |
| H-2A DEB | Debris |
| H-2A 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.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 5:57 AM, 11 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "MDS 1",
"OBJECT_ID": "2002-003A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T05:57:07.081632",
"MEAN_MOTION": 7.2168403,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.41200591,
"INCLINATION": 28.4983,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 8.2641,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 54.8596,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 337.2086,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 27367,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 40323,
"BSTAR": 0.0024292905,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00037679,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}