- TRANSIT 5E 3
- NORAD 705
- 1963-049C
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Brazil
Orbit ends over Bolivia
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Transit VE-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 Transit VE-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 to see with the naked eye from anywhere on Earth.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Davis Strait LIVE
Where is Transit VE-3?
At 5:26:04 PM UTC Transit VE-3 was over the Davis Strait (69.8° N, 60.4° W), 1,091 km up, moving at 7.31 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Transit VE-3?
A satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Dec 5, 1963.
Can I see Transit VE-3?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Transit VE-3, and nothing here estimates one.
General
- Operator
- Bureau of Naval Weapons, US Navy
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- JHU-Applied Physics Lab
- Launched
- Mass
- 52 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
- 5:26 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:26 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 69.8° N, 60.4° W
- Altitude
- 1,091 km
- Speed
- 7.31 km/s (26,330 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight until 6:29 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 89.9°
- Orbital period
- 106.8 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 13.48
- This orbit
- 1,053 to 1,103 km
- In shadow
- 33 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,530 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 6:19 AM, 11 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 6:19 AM, 11 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Transit VE-3, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Transit VE-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
Transit VE-3 shares its launch, 1963-049, with 8 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| THOR ABLESTAR R/B | Rocket body |
| TRANSIT 5B-2 | Navigation satellite |
| THOR ABLESTAR DEB | Debris |
| THOR ABLESTAR DEB | Debris |
| THOR ABLESTAR DEB | Debris |
| THOR ABLESTAR DEB | Debris |
| THOR ABLESTAR DEB | Debris |
| TRANSIT 5B-2 DEB | Debris |
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.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 6:19 AM, 11 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "TRANSIT 5E 3",
"OBJECT_ID": "1963-049C",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T06:19:33.208320",
"MEAN_MOTION": 13.47688916,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00334209,
"INCLINATION": 89.9264,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 69.2584,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 197.3259,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 188.9947,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 705,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 9150,
"BSTAR": 0.000086622596,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 6.3e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}