- Communications satellite
- VESSELSAT 1
- NORAD 37840
- 2011-058C
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Atlantic Ocean
Orbit ends over the Atlantic Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches VesselSat1 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 VesselSat1, 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 reaches you from it reaches a dish or an antenna, not an eye.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over Brazil LIVE
Where is VesselSat1?
At 6:20:30 PM UTC VesselSat1 was over Brazil (4.1° N, 61.6° W), 842 km up, moving at 7.44 km/s and in sunlight.
What is VesselSat1?
A communications satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Oct 12, 2011.
Can I see VesselSat1?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for VesselSat1, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- LuxSpace Sarl (OHB)
- State
- Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of
- Built by
- LuxSpace Sarl (OHB)
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 29 kg
- 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, 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
- 4.1° N, 61.6° W
- Altitude
- 842 km
- Speed
- 7.44 km/s (26,780 km/h)
- Course
- east
- Light
- In sunlight until 6:42 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 20°
- Orbital period
- 102 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.11
- This orbit
- 850 to 869 km
- In shadow
- 35 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,180 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 4:42 AM, 13 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 4:42 AM, 13 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for VesselSat1, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to VesselSat1 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
VesselSat1 shares its launch, 2011-058, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VesselSat1 | 850 to 869 km | 102 minutes | 29 kg | 2011 |
| BlueWalker 3 | 443 to 453 km | 94 minutes | about 1.5 t | 2022 |
| 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 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 4:42 AM, 13 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "VESSELSAT 1",
"OBJECT_ID": "2011-058C",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T04:42:42.792768",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.11455609,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00136753,
"INCLINATION": 19.9614,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 253.577,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 27.0908,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 333.0208,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 37840,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 77830,
"BSTAR": 0.000062787282,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.0000038,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}