- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- OPS 5721
- NORAD 9415
- 1976-091A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Atlantic Ocean
Orbit ends over Brazil
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches DMSP F-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 DMSP F-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 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 the Atlantic Ocean LIVE
Where is DMSP F-1?
At 5:36:08 PM UTC DMSP F-1 was over the Atlantic Ocean (23.5° N, 30.6° W), 791 km up, moving at 7.47 km/s and in sunlight.
What is DMSP F-1?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Sep 11, 1976.
Can I see DMSP F-1?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for DMSP F-1, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- USAF Space and Missile Systems Organization
- State
- United States of America
- Built by
- RCA Astro Electronics (Astro Space)
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- 447 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, 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
- 5:36 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:36 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 23.5° N, 30.6° W
- Altitude
- 791 km
- Speed
- 7.47 km/s (26,874 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight until 6:29 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 98.4°
- Orbital period
- 100.8 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.28
- This orbit
- 784 to 808 km
- In shadow
- 27 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,090 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 8:27 AM, 9 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 8:27 AM, 9 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for DMSP F-1, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to DMSP F-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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DMSP F-1 | 784 to 808 km | 101 minutes | 447 kg | 1976 |
| Sentinel-2A | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2015 |
| Sentinel-2B | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2017 |
| Sentinel-2C | 788 to 790 km | 101 minutes | about 1.1 t | 2024 |
| Sentinel-3A | 802 to 804 km | 101 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2016 |
| Sentinel-3B | 802 to 804 km | 101 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2018 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 8:27 AM, 9 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "OPS 5721",
"OBJECT_ID": "1976-091A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T08:27:48.149568",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.27908241,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00170728,
"INCLINATION": 98.3784,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 97.3108,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 190.3341,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 169.7492,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 9415,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 37308,
"BSTAR": 0.00012820579,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000276,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}