- Communications satellite
- Military
- AEHF 3 (USA 246)
- NORAD 39256
- 2013-050A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Pacific Ocean
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches AEHF SV-3 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 AEHF SV-3, 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 the Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is AEHF SV-3?
At 6:19:19 PM UTC AEHF SV-3 was over the Pacific Ocean (4.2° N, 125° W), 35,575 km up, moving at 3.09 km/s and in sunlight.
What is AEHF SV-3?
A communications satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Sep 18, 2013.
Can I see AEHF SV-3?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for AEHF SV-3, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- US Air Force Military Satellite Communications Wing, AFSMC, LAAFB
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- Lockheed Martin Space Systems (Sunnyvale)
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 6.2 t
- Operating
- Yes
- Orbit class
- Inclined geosynchronous
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
- 6:19 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:19 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 4.2° N, 125° W
- Altitude
- 35,575 km
- Speed
- 3.09 km/s (11,124 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 5.6°
- Orbital period
- 1,436.1 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 1
- This orbit
- 35,388 to 36,186 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,940 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 6:52 AM, 11 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 6:52 AM, 11 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for AEHF SV-3, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to AEHF SV-3 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AEHF SV-3 | 35,388 to 36,186 km | 1,436 minutes | about 6.2 t | 2013 |
| 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, 6:52 AM, 11 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "AEHF 3 (USA 246)",
"OBJECT_ID": "2013-050A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T06:52:03.216576",
"MEAN_MOTION": 1.00273586,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00945737,
"INCLINATION": 5.6448,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 65.7798,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 190.8127,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 129.6826,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 39256,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 4709,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 3.6e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}