- Space telescope
- SOLRAD 11A
- NORAD 8748
- 1976-023C
- Medium Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Atlantic Ocean
Orbit ends over Brazil
In view from you
Nobody watches SR 11A 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 SR 11A, 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 faint for the naked eye, and catching it would take a telescope driven to follow a point crossing the sky in minutes. What is worth looking at is what it sends back.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over Brazil LIVE
Where is SR 11A?
At 4:40:50 PM UTC SR 11A was over Brazil (11.9° S, 64.7° W), 117,716 km up, moving at 1.8 km/s and in sunlight.
What is SR 11A?
A space telescope in medium Earth orbit, in space since Mar 15, 1976.
Can I see SR 11A?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for SR 11A, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is what it sees, which its operator publishes.
General
- Operator
- Naval Research Lab
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- Naval Research Lab
- What it is
- Space telescope
- Launched
- Mass
- 171 kg
- Operating
- 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, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 4:40 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 4:40 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 11.9° S, 64.7° W
- Altitude
- 117,716 km
- Speed
- 1.8 km/s (6,473 km/h)
- Course
- west
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 14.8°
- Orbital period
- 7,317.8 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 0.2
- This orbit
- 117,721 to 119,238 km
- In view from
- Within 8,570 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 4:10 PM, 30 minutes old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 4:10 PM, 30 minutes old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for SR 11A, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to SR 11A 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
SR 11A shares its launch, 1976-023, with 7 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| LES 8 | Communications satellite |
| LES 9 | Communications satellite |
| TITAN 3C TRANSTAGE R/B | Rocket body |
| SOLRAD 11A/B PKM | Rocket body |
| SOLRAD 11A/B AKM | Rocket body |
| TITAN 3C TRANSTAGE DEB | Debris |
| LES 8 9/SOL 11A B 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SR 11A | 117,721 to 119,238 km | 7,318 minutes | 171 kg | 1976 |
| Chandra | 12,186 to 136,630 km | 3,809 minutes | about 4.8 t | 1999 |
| XMM-Newton | 29,443 to 91,682 km | 2,873 minutes | about 3.8 t | 1999 |
| Cheops | 679 to 694 km | 98 minutes | 280 kg | 2019 |
| Fermi | 488 to 498 km | 94 minutes | about 4.3 t | 2008 |
| Hubble | 465 to 480 km | 94 minutes | about 12.2 t | 1990 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 4:10 PM, 30 minutes old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "SOLRAD 11A",
"OBJECT_ID": "1976-023C",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T16:10:38.828064",
"MEAN_MOTION": 0.19677991,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.0060755,
"INCLINATION": 14.765,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 0.4565,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 222.4733,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 9.8516,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 8748,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 574,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000585,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}