Microscope

LIVE
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Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/41457

  • MICROSCOPE
  • NORAD 41457
  • 2016-025B
  • Low Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where Microscope is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over the Northwest Passage

Orbit ends over the Arctic Ocean

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Microscope 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 Microscope, 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 to see with the naked eye from anywhere on Earth.

Timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source

Summary

Over Antarctica LIVE

Where is Microscope?

At 5:37:17 PM UTC Microscope was over Antarctica (73.4° S, 41.1° E), 722 km up, moving at 7.49 km/s and in sunlight.

What is Microscope?

A satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Apr 25, 2016.

Can I see Microscope?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Microscope, and nothing here estimates one.

General

Operator
National Space Research Center
State
French Republic
Built by
Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales
Launched
Mass
303 kg
Operating
Orbit class
Low Earth orbit

From GCAT, Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0: the operator, the state, the manufacturer, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.

Latest orbital data

Position received
5:37 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
5:37 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
73.4° S, 41.1° E
Altitude
722 km
Speed
7.49 km/s (26,975 km/h)
Course
north-west
Light
In sunlight
Inclination
98.2°
Orbital period
98.6 minutes
Orbits per day
14.6
This orbit
690 to 692 km
In shadow
None of this orbit
In view from
Within 1,980 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 8, 2026, 6:27 AM, 11 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 6:27 AM, 11 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Microscope, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to Microscope 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.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

Launched with

Microscope shares its launch, 2016-025, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.

BodyWhat it is
SENTINEL 1BEarth-watching 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.

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 6:27 AM, 11 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "MICROSCOPE",
  "OBJECT_ID": "2016-025B",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-08T06:27:03.307392",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 14.59770072,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00017025,
  "INCLINATION": 98.2424,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 324.0579,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 96.835,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 263.3043,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 41457,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 55974,
  "BSTAR": 0.00021576821,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000983,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}