- Earth-watching satellite
- TANDEM X
- NORAD 36605
- 2010-030A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Arctic Ocean
Orbit ends over Canada
In view from you
Nobody watches Tandem-X 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 Tandem-X, 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 Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is Tandem-X?
At 5:39:23 PM UTC Tandem-X was over the Pacific Ocean (21.5° N, 171.4° W), 511 km up, moving at 7.61 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Tandem-X?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Jun 21, 2010.
Can I see Tandem-X?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Tandem-X, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- German Aerospace Center
- State
- Germany, Federal Republic of
- Built by
- EADS Astrium Satellites (D), Friedrichsafen
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 1.3 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
- 5:39 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:39 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 21.5° N, 171.4° W
- Altitude
- 511 km
- Speed
- 7.61 km/s (27,400 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 97.4°
- Orbital period
- 94.8 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 15.19
- This orbit
- 504 to 507 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,590 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 10:55 AM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 10:55 AM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Tandem-X, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Tandem-X 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
Tandem-X shares its launch, 2010-030, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| SL-24 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tandem-X | 504 to 507 km | 95 minutes | about 1.3 t | 2010 |
| PAZ | 507 to 510 km | 95 minutes | about 1.4 t | 2018 |
| 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 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 7, 2026, 10:55 AM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "TANDEM X",
"OBJECT_ID": "2010-030A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T10:55:34.321440",
"MEAN_MOTION": 15.19152693,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00017796,
"INCLINATION": 97.4459,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 317.126,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 91.8999,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 268.244,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 36605,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 90839,
"BSTAR": 0.000001336479,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -3.9e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}