- Earth-watching satellite
- CLOUDSAT
- NORAD 29107
- 2006-016A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Pacific Ocean
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
In the Earth’s shadow since
Back in sunlight
In view from you
Nobody watches Cloudsat 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 Cloudsat, 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 Indian Ocean LIVE
Where is Cloudsat?
At 5:39:07 PM UTC Cloudsat was over the Indian Ocean (4.5° S, 45.9° E), 615 km up, moving at 7.55 km/s and in the Earth’s shadow.
What is Cloudsat?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Apr 28, 2006.
Can I see Cloudsat?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Cloudsat, 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
- 848 kg
- 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
- 5:39 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:39 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 4.5° S, 45.9° E
- Altitude
- 615 km
- Speed
- 7.55 km/s (27,180 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In the Earth’s shadow until 5:59 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 98.4°
- Orbital period
- 96.9 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.87
- This orbit
- 602 to 609 km
- In shadow
- 29 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,790 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 7:58 AM, 9 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 7:58 AM, 9 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Cloudsat, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Cloudsat 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
Cloudsat shares its launch, 2006-016, with 2 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| CALIPSO | Earth-watching satellite |
| DELTA 2 DEB (DPAF) | 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudsat | 602 to 609 km | 97 minutes | 848 kg | 2006 |
| 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 |
| SMAP | 681 to 683 km | 98 minutes | 944 kg | 2015 |
| Aqua | 685 to 687 km | 98 minutes | about 2.9 t | 2002 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 7:58 AM, 9 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "CLOUDSAT",
"OBJECT_ID": "2006-016A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T07:58:47.818560",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.86617212,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00044179,
"INCLINATION": 98.3762,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 357.5081,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 213.8311,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 146.2622,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 29107,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 9592,
"BSTAR": 0.00014549767,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.0000123,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}