- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- CARTOSAT-1
- NORAD 28649
- 2005-017A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Romania
Orbit ends over France
In view from you
Nobody watches Cartosat-1 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 Cartosat-1, 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 Cartosat-1?
At 5:36:11 PM UTC Cartosat-1 was over Antarctica (81.1° S, 74.4° E), 622 km up, moving at 7.55 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Cartosat-1?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since May 5, 2005.
Can I see Cartosat-1?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Cartosat-1, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- Indian Space Research Organization
- State
- India, Republic of
- Built by
- Indian Space Research Organization
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 1.6 t
- 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, that a defence organisation flies it, 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
- 81.1° S, 74.4° E
- Altitude
- 622 km
- Speed
- 7.55 km/s (27,166 km/h)
- Course
- north-west
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 97.5°
- Orbital period
- 96.6 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.91
- This orbit
- 590 to 591 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,800 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 7:26 PM, 22 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 7:26 PM, 22 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Cartosat-1, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Cartosat-1 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
Cartosat-1 shares its launch, 2005-017, with 3 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cartosat-1 | 590 to 591 km | 96 minutes | about 1.6 t | 2005 |
| WorldView-3 | 612 to 615 km | 97 minutes | about 2.8 t | 2014 |
| SAOCOM 1A | 622 to 624 km | 97 minutes | about 3 t | 2018 |
| ALOS-2 | 630 to 632 km | 97 minutes | about 2.1 t | 2014 |
| PAZ | 507 to 510 km | 95 minutes | about 1.4 t | 2018 |
| SMAP | 681 to 683 km | 98 minutes | 944 kg | 2015 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 7, 2026, 7:26 PM, 22 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "CARTOSAT-1",
"OBJECT_ID": "2005-017A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T19:26:25.761696",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.91342963,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.0000881,
"INCLINATION": 97.5242,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 328.341,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 51.3013,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 308.8285,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 28649,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 16522,
"BSTAR": 0.00015189529,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00001462,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}