Explorer 16

LIVE
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Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/506

  • EXPLORER 16
  • NORAD 506
  • 1962-070A
  • Low Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where Explorer 16 is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over the Pacific Ocean

Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean

Sunlit since

Enters the Earth’s shadow

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Explorer 16 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 Explorer 16, 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 the Indian Ocean LIVE

Where is Explorer 16?

At 9:13:52 PM UTC Explorer 16 was over the Indian Ocean (51.6° S, 152.2° E), 948 km up, moving at 7.38 km/s and in sunlight.

What is Explorer 16?

A satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Dec 16, 1962.

Can I see Explorer 16?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Explorer 16, and nothing here estimates one.

General

Operator
NASA Langley Research Center
State
United States of America
Built by
NASA Langley Research Center
Launched
Mass
76 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
9:13 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
9:13 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
51.6° S, 152.2° E
Altitude
948 km
Speed
7.38 km/s (26,582 km/h)
Course
east
Light
In sunlight until 10:04 PM UTC
Inclination
52°
Orbital period
103.9 minutes
Orbits per day
13.86
This orbit
742 to 1,146 km
In shadow
36 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 2,330 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 8, 2026, 6:02 AM, 15 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 6:02 AM, 15 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Explorer 16, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to Explorer 16 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.

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 6:02 AM, 15 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "EXPLORER 16",
  "OBJECT_ID": "1962-070A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-08T06:02:18.205440",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 13.85814326,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.02760765,
  "INCLINATION": 52.0019,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 239.8753,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 3.2144,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 357.0475,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 506,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 22873,
  "BSTAR": 0.00011461243,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 3.1e-7,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}