- Navigation satellite
- Military
- TRANSIT 2A
- NORAD 45
- 1960-007A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Kazakhstan
Orbit ends over Russia
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Transit II-A 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 Transit II-A, 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
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
- Close approach
On Tuesday, Nov 3 at 9:05 AM UTC, ERS 1 (NORAD 21574) was to pass within 243 m of Transit 2A (NORAD 45). The chance was about 1 in 6,000.
Summary
Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is Transit II-A?
At 5:26:15 PM UTC Transit II-A was over the Pacific Ocean (60.3° S, 102.9° W), 958 km up, moving at 7.29 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Transit II-A?
A navigation satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Jun 22, 1960.
Can I see Transit II-A?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Transit II-A, and nothing here estimates one; receivers on the ground use its signals instead, whenever it is above their horizon.
General
- Operator
- Bureau of Naval Weapons, US Navy
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- JHU-Applied Physics Lab
- What it is
- Navigation satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- 100 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, 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
- 5:26 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:26 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 60.3° S, 102.9° W
- Altitude
- 958 km
- Speed
- 7.29 km/s (26,233 km/h)
- Course
- south-east
- Light
- In sunlight until 5:57 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 66.7°
- Orbital period
- 100.3 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.36
- This orbit
- 597 to 943 km
- In shadow
- 29 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,350 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 1:14 AM, 16 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 1:14 AM, 16 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Transit II-A, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- 1 reported. No close approach to Transit II-A is reported for the next three 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
Transit II-A shares its launch, 1960-007, with 2 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| SOLRAD 1 (GREB) | Satellite |
| THOR ABLESTAR 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.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 1:14 AM, 16 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "TRANSIT 2A",
"OBJECT_ID": "1960-007A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T01:14:11.398848",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.36046335,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.0242298,
"INCLINATION": 66.6941,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 339.6876,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 53.037,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 309.2649,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 45,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 40070,
"BSTAR": 0.000071304071,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000183,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}