- Earth-watching satellite
- SPARK 1
- NORAD 41900
- 2016-081C
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Pacific Ocean
Orbit ends over the Indian Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches SPARK-01 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 SPARK-01, 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 it is up there for reaches the ground as pictures and measurements, not as a light in the sky.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Arctic Ocean LIVE
Where is SPARK-01?
At 6:46:00 PM UTC SPARK-01 was over the Arctic Ocean (81.4° N, 97.7° W), 720 km up, moving at 7.5 km/s and in sunlight.
What is SPARK-01?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Dec 21, 2016.
Can I see SPARK-01?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for SPARK-01, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites, SIMIT
- State
- China, People's Republic of
- Built by
- Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites, SIMIT
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 43 kg
- Operating
- Yes
- Orbit class
- Low Earth orbit
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
- 6:46 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:46 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 81.4° N, 97.7° W
- Altitude
- 720 km
- Speed
- 7.5 km/s (26,986 km/h)
- Course
- west
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 98.6°
- Orbital period
- 98.6 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.6
- This orbit
- 675 to 707 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,980 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 6:50 AM, 11 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 6:50 AM, 11 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for SPARK-01, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to SPARK-01 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
SPARK-01 shares its launch, 2016-081, with 3 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| TANSAT | Earth-watching satellite |
| YIJIAN | Earth-watching satellite |
| SPARK 2 | Earth-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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPARK-01 | 675 to 707 km | 99 minutes | 43 kg | 2016 |
| Terra | 688 to 691 km | 99 minutes | about 5.2 t | 1999 |
| Sentinel-1A | 693 to 695 km | 99 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2014 |
| Sentinel-1C | 695 to 697 km | 99 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2024 |
| Sentinel-1D | 695 to 697 km | 99 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2025 |
| Aqua | 685 to 687 km | 98 minutes | about 2.9 t | 2002 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 6:50 AM, 11 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "SPARK 1",
"OBJECT_ID": "2016-081C",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T06:50:48.831360",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.59906898,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00226421,
"INCLINATION": 98.5575,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 311.2748,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 233.7318,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 126.1789,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 41900,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 52529,
"BSTAR": 0.00011883212,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.0000052,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}