- Earth-watching satellite
- NORAD 54754
- 2022-173A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Canada
Orbit ends over Canada
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches SWOT 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 SWOT, 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 Antarctica LIVE
Where is SWOT?
At 5:35:57 PM UTC SWOT was over Antarctica (69.4° S, 103.8° E), 919 km up, moving at 7.39 km/s and in sunlight.
What is SWOT?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Dec 16, 2022.
Can I see SWOT?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for SWOT, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- National Space Research Center
- State
- French Republic
- Built by
- Thales Alenia Space
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 2.2 t
- 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
- 5:35 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:35 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 69.4° S, 103.8° E
- Altitude
- 919 km
- Speed
- 7.39 km/s (26,608 km/h)
- Course
- south-east
- Light
- In sunlight until 6:37 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 77.6°
- Orbital period
- 102.8 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14
- This orbit
- 890 to 891 km
- In shadow
- 33 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,290 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 7:49 AM, 9 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 7:49 AM, 9 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for SWOT, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to SWOT 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWOT | 890 to 891 km | 103 minutes | about 2.2 t | 2022 |
| Sentinel-5P | 826 to 828 km | 101 minutes | 820 kg | 2017 |
| Suomi NPP | 825 to 829 km | 101 minutes | about 2.1 t | 2011 |
| MetOp-SG A1 | 820 to 821 km | 101 minutes | about 4 t | 2025 |
| Metop-B | 818 to 823 km | 101 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2012 |
| Metop-C | 820 to 821 km | 101 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2018 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 7:49 AM, 9 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "SWOT",
"OBJECT_ID": "2022-173A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T07:49:08.460768",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.00168167,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00004192,
"INCLINATION": 77.611,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 200.7326,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 61.8188,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 298.3006,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 54754,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 19932,
"BSTAR": 0.000019087009,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 2.6e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}