- Earth-watching satellite
- QPS-SAR-12 KUSHINADA-I
- NORAD 65116
- 2025-169A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the People's Republic of China
Orbit ends over Turkmenistan
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Kushinada-I 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 Kushinada-I, 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 Ghana LIVE
Where is Kushinada-I?
At 5:36:52 PM UTC Kushinada-I was over Ghana (9.5° N, 2.2° W), 558 km up, moving at 7.59 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Kushinada-I?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Aug 5, 2025.
Can I see Kushinada-I?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Kushinada-I, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- QPS Laboratories Co, Ltd.
- State
- Japan (Nippon), State of
- Built by
- QPS Laboratories Co, Ltd.
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 120 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, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 5:36 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:36 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 9.5° N, 2.2° W
- Altitude
- 558 km
- Speed
- 7.59 km/s (27,310 km/h)
- Course
- north-east
- Light
- In sunlight until 5:43 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 42°
- Orbital period
- 95.9 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 15.02
- This orbit
- 558 to 568 km
- In shadow
- 34 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,680 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 7:58 AM, 9 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 7:58 AM, 9 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Kushinada-I, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Kushinada-I 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
Kushinada-I shares its launch, 2025-169, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| ELECTRON KICK STAGE 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kushinada-I | 558 to 568 km | 96 minutes | 120 kg | 2025 |
| WorldView-3 | 612 to 615 km | 97 minutes | about 2.8 t | 2014 |
| PAZ | 507 to 510 km | 95 minutes | about 1.4 t | 2018 |
| SAOCOM 1A | 622 to 624 km | 97 minutes | about 3 t | 2018 |
| ALOS-2 | 630 to 632 km | 97 minutes | about 2.1 t | 2014 |
| SMAP | 681 to 683 km | 98 minutes | 944 kg | 2015 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 7:58 AM, 9 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "QPS-SAR-12 KUSHINADA-I",
"OBJECT_ID": "2025-169A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T07:58:31.305792",
"MEAN_MOTION": 15.01890439,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00071712,
"INCLINATION": 42.0113,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 301.5374,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 75.3996,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 284.7626,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 65116,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 6908,
"BSTAR": 0.00057361058,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00007445,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}