- Navigation satellite
- Military
- NORAD 40105
- 2014-045A
- Medium Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the United States of America
Orbit ends over Uzbekistan
In view from you
Nobody watches NAVSTAR 71 (USA 256) 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 71 (USA 256), 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
Summary
Over the Atlantic Ocean LIVE
Where is NAVSTAR 71 (USA 256)?
At 4:10:00 AM UTC NAVSTAR 71 (USA 256) was over the Atlantic Ocean (9.4° N, 15.5° W), 20,215 km up, moving at 3.87 km/s and in sunlight.
What is NAVSTAR 71 (USA 256)?
A GPS navigation satellite in medium Earth orbit, in space since Aug 2, 2014.
Can I see NAVSTAR 71 (USA 256)?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for NAVSTAR 71 (USA 256), and nothing here estimates one; receivers on the ground use its signals instead, whenever it is above their horizon.
General
NAVSTAR 71 (USA 256) 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 9
- Space vehicle number
- 68
- Clock in use
- Rubidium
- 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
- 4:10 AM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 4:10 AM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 9.4° N, 15.5° W
- Altitude
- 20,215 km
- Speed
- 3.87 km/s (13,928 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 55.5°
- Orbital period
- 718 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 2.01
- This orbit
- 20,085 to 20,279 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,380 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 1, 2026, 3:53 PM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 1, 2026, 3:53 PM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for NAVSTAR 71 (USA 256), 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 F, slot 3
- Last outage
- Feb 5, 2026, 12:41 PM to Feb 5, 2026, 6:34 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 71 (USA 256) 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 1, 2026, 3:53 PM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "NAVSTAR 71 (USA 256)",
"OBJECT_ID": "2014-045A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-01T15:53:21.692832",
"MEAN_MOTION": 2.00567021,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.0036549,
"INCLINATION": 55.4544,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 82.9918,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 121.7657,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 238.5851,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 40105,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 8883,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 2.6e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}