Blackjack Aces-3

LIVE
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Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/56950

  • Communications satellite
  • Military
  • BLACKJACK ACES-3
  • NORAD 56950
  • 2023-084U
  • Low Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where Blackjack Aces-3 is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over the Atlantic Ocean

Orbit ends over Venezuela

Sunlit since

Enters the Earth’s shadow

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Blackjack Aces-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 Blackjack Aces-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 reaches you from it reaches a dish or an antenna, not an eye.

Timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source

Summary

Over Antarctica LIVE

Where is Blackjack Aces-3?

At 6:21:44 PM UTC Blackjack Aces-3 was over Antarctica (74.7° S, 155.1° E), 537 km up, moving at 7.59 km/s and in sunlight.

What is Blackjack Aces-3?

A communications satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Jun 12, 2023.

Can I see Blackjack Aces-3?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Blackjack Aces-3, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.

General

Operator
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
State
United States of America
Built by
Blue Canyon Technologies
What it is
Communications satellite
Military
Yes: a defence organisation flies it
Launched
Mass
200 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
6:21 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
6:21 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
74.7° S, 155.1° E
Altitude
537 km
Speed
7.59 km/s (27,335 km/h)
Course
north-west
Light
In sunlight until 6:33 PM UTC
Inclination
97.6°
Orbital period
94.8 minutes
Orbits per day
15.19
This orbit
505 to 507 km
In shadow
32 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 1,640 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 8, 2026, 7:37 AM, 9 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 7:37 AM, 10 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Blackjack Aces-3, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to Blackjack Aces-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.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

Launched with

Blackjack Aces-3 shares its launch, 2023-084, with 16 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.

BodyWhat it is
GEISAT PRECURSOREarth-watching satellite
NUSAT-41 (C PAYNE-G)Earth-watching satellite
GREGOIREEarth-watching satellite
RUNNER-1 (TYVAK-1005)Earth-watching satellite
HOTSAT-1Earth-watching satellite
BLACKJACK ACES-2Communications satellite
BLACKJACK ACES-1Communications satellite
ION SCV-011Satellite
GHOST-3Earth-watching satellite
ORBITER SN3Satellite
ICEYE-X25Earth-watching satellite
AFR-1Earth-watching satellite
NUSAT-42 (M WONENBURGER)Earth-watching satellite
LEMUR 2 EMBRIONOVISEarth-watching satellite
AAC-HSI-SAT2Earth-watching satellite
AAC-AIS-SAT2Communications 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

SatelliteTypical altitudeOrbital periodMassIn space since
Blackjack Aces-3505 to 507 km95 minutes200 kg2023
BlueWalker 3443 to 453 km94 minutesabout 1.5 t2022
Hispasat 30W-635,786 to 35,786 km1,436 minutesabout 6.1 t2018
Amazonas Nexus35,786 to 35,786 km1,436 minutesabout 4.1 t2023
ARSAT-135,786 to 35,786 km1,436 minutesabout 3 t2014
Astra 1N35,786 to 35,786 km1,436 minutesabout 5.3 t2011

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 7:37 AM, 9 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "BLACKJACK ACES-3",
  "OBJECT_ID": "2023-084U",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-08T07:37:55.431552",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 15.18972873,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00012837,
  "INCLINATION": 97.641,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 88.8727,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 170.6629,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 189.4629,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 56950,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 18904,
  "BSTAR": 0.00041052345,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00008517,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}