- Navigation satellite
- Military
- OPS 7518 (NTS 1)
- NORAD 7369
- 1974-054A
- Medium Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Labrador Sea
Orbit ends over the Bering Sea
In view from you
Nobody watches NTS 1 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 NTS 1, 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 far too high and too faint for the naked eye. What you notice of it is a position fix, and the card above says whether it is above your horizon to give you one.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over Brazil LIVE
Where is NTS 1?
At 5:35:58 PM UTC NTS 1 was over Brazil (20° S, 40.4° W), 13,653 km up, moving at 4.46 km/s and in sunlight.
What is NTS 1?
A navigation satellite in medium Earth orbit, in space since Jul 14, 1974.
Can I see NTS 1?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for NTS 1, and nothing here estimates one; receivers on the ground use its signals instead, whenever it is above their horizon.
General
- Operator
- USAF Space and Missile Systems Organization
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- Naval Research Lab
- What it is
- Navigation satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- 295 kg
- Operating
- No: its regular operations have ended
- Orbit class
- Medium 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
- 5:35 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:35 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 20° S, 40.4° W
- Altitude
- 13,653 km
- Speed
- 4.46 km/s (16,045 km/h)
- Course
- north-west
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 125°
- Orbital period
- 468.7 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 3.07
- This orbit
- 13,479 to 13,742 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 6,870 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 6, 2026, 1:52 PM, 2 days old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 6, 2026, 1:52 PM, 2 days old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for NTS 1, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to NTS 1 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
NTS 1 shares its launch, 1974-054, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| NTS 1 AKM | 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.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 6, 2026, 1:52 PM, 2 days old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "OPS 7518 (NTS 1)",
"OBJECT_ID": "1974-054A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-06T13:52:08.875200",
"MEAN_MOTION": 3.07214652,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00657643,
"INCLINATION": 124.9592,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 256.5945,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 82.3506,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 29.8119,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 7369,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 58699,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -1e-8,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}