- Communications satellite
- O3B FM16
- NORAD 43232
- 2018-024B
- Medium Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Atlantic Ocean
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches O3b FM16 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 O3b FM16, 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 O3b FM16?
At 6:35:41 PM UTC O3b FM16 was over the Pacific Ocean (0° S, 130.7° W), 8,061 km up, moving at 5.26 km/s and in sunlight.
What is O3b FM16?
A communications satellite in medium Earth orbit, in space since Mar 9, 2018.
Can I see O3b FM16?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for O3b FM16, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- SES O3B Networks Ltd.
- State
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Built by
- Thales Alenia Space
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 700 kg
- Operating
- Yes
- Orbit class
- Medium 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
- 6:35 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:35 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 0° S, 130.7° W
- Altitude
- 8,061 km
- Speed
- 5.26 km/s (18,918 km/h)
- Course
- east
- Light
- In sunlight until 9:05 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 0.1°
- Orbital period
- 287.9 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 5
- This orbit
- 8,065 to 8,073 km
- In shadow
- 33 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 6,030 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 1:36 AM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 1:36 AM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for O3b FM16, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to O3b FM16 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
O3b FM16 shares its launch, 2018-024, with 4 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| O3B FM15 | Communications satellite |
| O3B FM14 | Communications satellite |
| O3B FM13 | Communications satellite |
| FREGAT R/B | Rocket body |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| O3b FM16 | 8,065 to 8,073 km | 288 minutes | 700 kg | 2018 |
| BlueWalker 3 | 443 to 453 km | 94 minutes | about 1.5 t | 2022 |
| 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 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 7, 2026, 1:36 AM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "O3B FM16",
"OBJECT_ID": "2018-024B",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T01:36:05.619744",
"MEAN_MOTION": 5.0011609,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.0002635,
"INCLINATION": 0.0591,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 356.8086,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 231.7564,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 131.4178,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 43232,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 15808,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -2.3e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}