- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- PNEO3
- NORAD 48268
- 2021-034A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Greenland Sea
Orbit ends over the Arctic Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Pleiades Neo 3 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 Pleiades Neo 3, 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 Mexico LIVE
Where is Pleiades Neo 3?
At 5:37:09 PM UTC Pleiades Neo 3 was over Mexico (24.8° N, 103.1° W), 627 km up, moving at 7.55 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Pleiades Neo 3?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Apr 29, 2021.
Can I see Pleiades Neo 3?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Pleiades Neo 3, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- Airbus Defense and Space - Intelligence
- State
- French Republic
- Built by
- Airbus Defense and Space (F) Toulouse
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- 920 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, 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
- 5:37 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:37 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 24.8° N, 103.1° W
- Altitude
- 627 km
- Speed
- 7.55 km/s (27,173 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight until 6:19 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 97.9°
- Orbital period
- 97.2 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.82
- This orbit
- 620 to 622 km
- In shadow
- 35 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,810 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 7:11 AM, 10 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 7:11 AM, 10 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Pleiades Neo 3, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Pleiades Neo 3 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
Pleiades Neo 3 shares its launch, 2021-034, with 4 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| LEMUR 2 AMANDA-SVANTE | Communications satellite |
| AII-BRAVO | Satellite |
| TYVAK-182A | Communications satellite |
| NORSAT 3 | Communications 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pleiades Neo 3 | 620 to 622 km | 97 minutes | 920 kg | 2021 |
| SAOCOM 1A | 622 to 624 km | 97 minutes | about 3 t | 2018 |
| WorldView-3 | 612 to 615 km | 97 minutes | about 2.8 t | 2014 |
| ALOS-2 | 630 to 632 km | 97 minutes | about 2.1 t | 2014 |
| SMAP | 681 to 683 km | 98 minutes | 944 kg | 2015 |
| 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, 7:11 AM, 10 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "PNEO3",
"OBJECT_ID": "2021-034A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T07:11:51.482688",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.81671382,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00013972,
"INCLINATION": 97.8955,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 24.9955,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 92.9168,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 267.2205,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 48268,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 29899,
"BSTAR": 0.000025723172,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.0000015,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}