- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- PLEIADES 1
- NORAD 38012
- 2011-076F
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Barents Sea
Orbit ends over the Barents Sea
In the Earth’s shadow since
Back in sunlight
In view from you
Nobody watches Pleiades 1a 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 Pleiades 1a, 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 Uzbekistan LIVE
Where is Pleiades 1a?
At 5:36:26 PM UTC Pleiades 1a was over Uzbekistan (38.7° N, 67.2° E), 702 km up, moving at 7.51 km/s and in the Earth’s shadow.
What is Pleiades 1a?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Dec 17, 2011.
Can I see Pleiades 1a?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Pleiades 1a, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- National Space Research Center
- State
- French Republic
- Built by
- Astrium (F) Toulouse
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- 970 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, 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
- 38.7° N, 67.2° E
- Altitude
- 702 km
- Speed
- 7.51 km/s (27,032 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In the Earth’s shadow until 5:47 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 98.2°
- Orbital period
- 98.7 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.59
- This orbit
- 694 to 696 km
- In shadow
- 34 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,950 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 7:57 AM, 8 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 7:57 AM, 9 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Pleiades 1a, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Pleiades 1a 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
Pleiades 1a shares its launch, 2011-076, with 6 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| ELISA W11 | Satellite |
| ELISA E24 | Satellite |
| ELISA W23 | Satellite |
| ELISA E12 | Satellite |
| SSOT | Earth-watching satellite |
| ASAP-S | Satellite |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pleiades 1a | 694 to 696 km | 99 minutes | 970 kg | 2011 |
| Sentinel-1A | 693 to 695 km | 99 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2014 |
| Sentinel-1C | 695 to 697 km | 99 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2024 |
| Sentinel-1D | 695 to 697 km | 99 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2025 |
| Terra | 688 to 691 km | 99 minutes | about 5.2 t | 1999 |
| Landsat 8 | 702 to 703 km | 99 minutes | about 2.8 t | 2013 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 7:57 AM, 8 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "PLEIADES 1",
"OBJECT_ID": "2011-076F",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T07:57:18.315936",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.58563867,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00016015,
"INCLINATION": 98.1864,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 25.3931,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 81.5394,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 6.9928,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 38012,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 79300,
"BSTAR": 0.000053836726,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000205,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}