- Navigation satellite
- Military
- NORAD 39166
- 2013-023A
- Medium Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Atlantic Ocean
Orbit ends over the Sea of Japan
In view from you
Nobody watches NAVSTAR 68 (USA 242) 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 NAVSTAR 68 (USA 242), 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 far too high and too faint for the naked eye. What you notice of it is a position fix, and the card above says whether it is above your horizon to give you one.
Timeline
- Outage
It was out of service from Oct 6, 2012, 6:14 PM to Oct 6, 2012, 10:00 PM, which its operator had not forecast. Source
- Outage
It was out of service from Dec 11, 2025, 10:41 AM to Dec 17, 2025, 8:41 PM, which its operator had not forecast. Source
- Outage
Its operator took it out of service from May 8, 2026, 6:00 PM to May 19, 2026, 9:24 PM, as it had forecast. Source
Summary
Over the Indian Ocean LIVE
Where is NAVSTAR 68 (USA 242)?
At 4:09:11 AM UTC NAVSTAR 68 (USA 242) was over the Indian Ocean (53.7° S, 82.3° E), 20,462 km up, moving at 3.84 km/s and in sunlight.
What is NAVSTAR 68 (USA 242)?
A GPS navigation satellite in medium Earth orbit, in space since May 15, 2013.
Can I see NAVSTAR 68 (USA 242)?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for NAVSTAR 68 (USA 242), and nothing here estimates one; receivers on the ground use its signals instead, whenever it is above their horizon.
General
NAVSTAR 68 (USA 242) is one of the 32 navigation satellites of the GPS constellation. See every GPS satellite and how many are above you right now.
- Launched
- Known to its operator as
- PRN 27
- Space vehicle number
- 66
- Clock in use
- Caesium
- Generation
- GPS Block IIF
- Signals
- L1 C/A, P(Y) on L1 and L2, L2C, M-code, and L5
- Design life
- 12 years
- Built by
- Boeing
- Typical altitude
- 20,000 to 20,400 km
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 4:09 AM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 4:09 AM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 53.7° S, 82.3° E
- Altitude
- 20,462 km
- Speed
- 3.84 km/s (13,806 km/h)
- Course
- east
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 54.4°
- Orbital period
- 718 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 2.01
- This orbit
- 19,798 to 20,567 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,390 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 2, 2026, 6:56 AM, 21 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 2, 2026, 6:56 AM, 21 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for NAVSTAR 68 (USA 242), so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In service
A receiver can count on it now.
- Usable now
- Yes: its operator has published no outage in force.
- Plane and slot
- Plane C, slot 2
- Last outage
- May 8, 2026, 6:00 PM to May 19, 2026, 9:24 PM, forecast Notice
From GPS’s own notices, as its operator published them on Oct 30, 2026, 3:06 AM.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to NAVSTAR 68 (USA 242) has been reported publicly in the past thirty days.
From Space-Track’s public conjunction messages; the latest report was issued Nov 2, 2026, 1:53 PM, 14 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.
Beside the others
| Constellation | Satellites | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Planes | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPS | 32 | 20,000 to 20,400 km | 718 minutes | 6 | The United States Space Force |
| Galileo | 28 | 23,100 to 23,300 km | 845 minutes | — | EUSPA, the European Union Agency for the Space Programme |
| BeiDou | 37 | 21,450 to 21,600 km | 773 minutes | — | The China Satellite Navigation Office |
| GLONASS | 24 | 19,050 to 19,200 km | 676 minutes | — | Roscosmos, the Russian State Space Corporation |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 2, 2026, 6:56 AM, 21 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "NAVSTAR 68 (USA 242)",
"OBJECT_ID": "2013-023A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-02T06:56:51.319968",
"MEAN_MOTION": 2.00562912,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.0144671,
"INCLINATION": 54.4066,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 263.3377,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 51.344,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 309.9285,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 39166,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 9865,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -3.3e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}