- Earth-watching satellite
- AURA
- NORAD 28376
- 2004-026A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Arctic Ocean
Orbit ends over the Arctic Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Aura 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 Aura, 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 the Atlantic Ocean LIVE
Where is Aura?
At 5:20:28 PM UTC Aura was over the Atlantic Ocean (15.8° S, 35.1° W), 695 km up, moving at 7.51 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Aura?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Jul 15, 2004.
Can I see Aura?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Aura, 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
- Northrop Grummann Space Technology
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 3.1 t
- Operating
- Yes
- 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
- 5:20 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:20 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 15.8° S, 35.1° W
- Altitude
- 695 km
- Speed
- 7.51 km/s (27,029 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In sunlight until 5:55 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 98.4°
- Orbital period
- 98.5 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.62
- This orbit
- 685 to 686 km
- In shadow
- 28 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,930 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 5:54 AM, 11 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 5:54 AM, 11 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Aura, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Aura 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aura | 685 to 686 km | 98 minutes | about 3.1 t | 2004 |
| Aqua | 685 to 687 km | 98 minutes | about 2.9 t | 2002 |
| SMAP | 681 to 683 km | 98 minutes | 944 kg | 2015 |
| Terra | 688 to 691 km | 99 minutes | about 5.2 t | 1999 |
| Sentinel-1A | 693 to 695 km | 99 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2014 |
| Sentinel-1C | 695 to 697 km | 99 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2024 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 5:54 AM, 11 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "AURA",
"OBJECT_ID": "2004-026A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T05:54:43.386336",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.61509083,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00011026,
"INCLINATION": 98.3622,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 270.0452,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 95.3291,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 264.8035,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 28376,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 18725,
"BSTAR": 0.00021489101,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00001017,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}