Transit VE-5

LIVE
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Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/959

  • Space telescope
  • OPS 6582 (TRANSIT 5E-5)
  • NORAD 959
  • 1964-083C
  • Low Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where Transit VE-5 is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over the Indian Ocean

Orbit ends over the Indian Ocean

Sunlit since

Enters the Earth’s shadow

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Transit VE-5 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-5, 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

  1. Launch

    Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source

Summary

Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE

Where is Transit VE-5?

At 4:40:54 PM UTC Transit VE-5 was over the Pacific Ocean (31.7° S, 110.6° W), 1,040 km up, moving at 7.33 km/s and in sunlight.

What is Transit VE-5?

A space telescope in low Earth orbit, in space since Dec 13, 1964.

Can I see Transit VE-5?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Transit VE-5, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is what it sees, which its operator publishes.

General

Operator
Bureau of Naval Weapons, US Navy
State
United States of America
Built by
JHU-Applied Physics Lab
What it is
Space telescope
Launched
Mass
77 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, 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
31.7° S, 110.6° W
Altitude
1,040 km
Speed
7.33 km/s (26,388 km/h)
Course
north
Light
In sunlight until 5:22 PM UTC
Inclination
90°
Orbital period
105.7 minutes
Orbits per day
13.63
This orbit
994 to 1,053 km
In shadow
30 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 2,460 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 8, 2026, 3:29 AM, 13 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 3:29 AM, 13 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Transit VE-5, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to Transit VE-5 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.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

Launched with

Transit VE-5 shares its launch, 1964-083, with 6 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.

BodyWhat it is
THOR ABLESTAR R/BRocket body
THOR ABLESTAR DEBDebris
OPS 6582 (TRANSIT 5B-5)Navigation satellite
THOR ABLESTAR DEBDebris
THOR ABLESTAR DEBDebris
THOR ABLESTAR DEBDebris

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

SatelliteTypical altitudeOrbital periodMassIn space since
Transit VE-5994 to 1,053 km106 minutes77 kg1964
Cheops679 to 694 km98 minutes280 kg2019
Fermi488 to 498 km94 minutesabout 4.3 t2008
Hubble465 to 480 km94 minutesabout 12.2 t1990
XMM-Newton29,443 to 91,682 km2,873 minutesabout 3.8 t1999
Chandra12,186 to 136,630 km3,809 minutesabout 4.8 t1999

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 3:29 AM, 13 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "OPS 6582 (TRANSIT 5E-5)",
  "OBJECT_ID": "1964-083C",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-08T03:29:20.940000",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 13.6253326,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00403267,
  "INCLINATION": 90.0145,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 187.5422,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 237.1964,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 276.2112,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 959,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 6981,
  "BSTAR": 0.000204362,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000169,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}