- Communications satellite
- ASTRA 1M
- NORAD 33436
- 2008-057A
- Geostationary
Current orbit
View on live mapOne orbit takes a day, as long as the Earth takes to turn, so Astra 1M keeps above 19.4° E of the equator and never crosses the sky.
It never rises or sets
Astra 1M turns with the Earth, standing over one longitude of the equator. From anywhere it can be seen at all it is up day and night, in the same direction, so there is no pass to wait for.
No brightness has been published for Astra 1M, 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 wait for: it never crosses the sky. From the half of the Earth it stands over it keeps the same point day and night, and from the other half it never rises at all.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Democratic Republic of the Congo LIVE
Where is Astra 1M?
At 6:20:27 PM UTC Astra 1M was over the Democratic Republic of the Congo (0.6° S, 19.4° E), 35,794 km up, standing over one longitude of the equator and in sunlight.
What is Astra 1M?
A communications satellite in geostationary orbit, in space since Nov 5, 2008.
Can I see Astra 1M?
No, not with the naked eye, and it never crosses the sky: Astra 1M stands over 19.4° E of the equator; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- SES Astra
- State
- Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of
- Built by
- Astrium (F) Toulouse
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 5.3 t
- Operating
- Yes
- Orbit class
- Geostationary
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
- 6:20 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:20 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 0.6° S, 19.4° E
- Altitude
- 35,794 km
- Speed
- 3.07 km/s (11,066 km/h)
- Course
- Stands over 19.4° E
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 0.7°
- Orbital period
- 1,436.1 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 1
- This orbit
- 35,773 to 35,802 km
- In view from
- Within 7,940 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 7:37 AM, 9 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 7:37 AM, 10 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Astra 1M, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Astra 1M 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
Astra 1M shares its launch, 2008-057, with 2 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| BREEZE-M DEB (TANK) | Debris |
| BREEZE-M R/B | Rocket body |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astra 1M | 35,773 to 35,802 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.3 t | 2008 |
| Hispasat 30W-6 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 6.1 t | 2018 |
| Amazonas Nexus | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2023 |
| ARSAT-1 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 3 t | 2014 |
| Astra 1N | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.3 t | 2011 |
| Hotbird 13F | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.5 t | 2022 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 7:37 AM, 9 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "ASTRA 1M",
"OBJECT_ID": "2008-057A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T07:37:57.924192",
"MEAN_MOTION": 1.00271582,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00033997,
"INCLINATION": 0.6634,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 82.2858,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 138.5872,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 320.5366,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 33436,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 4718,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000128,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}