- DASH/VEP 3
- NORAD 27368
- 2002-003B
- Highly elliptical orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Atlantic Ocean
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches VEP-3 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 VEP-3, 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 Indian Ocean LIVE
Where is VEP-3?
At 5:36:54 PM UTC VEP-3 was over the Indian Ocean (4.8° S, 73.3° E), 27,359 km up, moving at 2.62 km/s and in sunlight.
What is VEP-3?
A satellite in a highly elliptical orbit, in space since Feb 4, 2002.
Can I see VEP-3?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for VEP-3, and nothing here estimates one.
General
- Operator
- National Space Development Adminstration
- State
- Japan (Nippon), State of
- Built by
- National Space Development Adminstration
- Launched
- Mass
- 330 kg
- Operating
- 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
- 5:36 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:36 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 4.8° S, 73.3° E
- Altitude
- 27,359 km
- Speed
- 2.62 km/s (9,418 km/h)
- Course
- south-west
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 28.4°
- Orbital period
- 606.9 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 2.37
- This orbit
- 394 to 34,349 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,700 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 4:46 AM, 12 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 4:46 AM, 12 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for VEP-3, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to VEP-3 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
VEP-3 shares its launch, 2002-003, with 4 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
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, 4:46 AM, 12 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "DASH/VEP 3",
"OBJECT_ID": "2002-003B",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T04:46:39.663552",
"MEAN_MOTION": 2.37258585,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.71485478,
"INCLINATION": 28.4152,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 196.5457,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 33.3362,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 355.9935,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 27368,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 20944,
"BSTAR": 0.0040996177,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00001771,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}