- Communications satellite
- INTELSAT 21
- NORAD 38749
- 2012-045A
- Geostationary
Current orbit
View on live mapOne orbit takes a day, as long as the Earth takes to turn, so Intelsat IS-21 keeps above 58° W of the equator and never crosses the sky.
It never rises or sets
Intelsat IS-21 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 Intelsat IS-21, 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 Brazil LIVE
Where is Intelsat IS-21?
At 6:45:55 PM UTC Intelsat IS-21 was over Brazil (0° S, 58° W), 35,779 km up, standing over one longitude of the equator and in sunlight.
What is Intelsat IS-21?
A communications satellite in geostationary orbit, in space since Aug 19, 2012.
Can I see Intelsat IS-21?
No, not with the naked eye, and it never crosses the sky: Intelsat IS-21 stands over 58° W of the equator; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- Intelsat S.A., US headquarters
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- Boeing Satellite Development Center, El Segundo
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 6 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
- 6:45 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:45 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 0° S, 58° W
- Altitude
- 35,779 km
- Speed
- 3.08 km/s (11,070 km/h)
- Course
- Stands over 58° W
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 0°
- Orbital period
- 1,436.1 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 1
- This orbit
- 35,778 to 35,797 km
- In view from
- Within 7,940 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 7:15 AM, 11 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 7:15 AM, 11 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Intelsat IS-21, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Intelsat IS-21 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
Intelsat IS-21 shares its launch, 2012-045, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| BLOCK DM-SL 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intelsat IS-21 | 35,778 to 35,797 km | 1,436 minutes | about 6 t | 2012 |
| 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, 7:15 AM, 11 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "INTELSAT 21",
"OBJECT_ID": "2012-045A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T07:15:52.540416",
"MEAN_MOTION": 1.00272212,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00021669,
"INCLINATION": 0.0071,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 34.1673,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 194.5451,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 229.7813,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 38749,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 5197,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000278,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}