Aqua

LIVE

Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/aqua

  • Earth-watching satellite
  • NORAD 27424
  • 2002-022A
  • Low Earth orbit
  • Naked-eye

Current orbit

Where Aqua is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over the Hudson Strait

Orbit ends over Canada

In the Earth’s shadow since

Back in sunlight

Past trackNext orbits

Passes over you

Say where you are and your own next passes appear here, the first drawn across your sky.

Your position is rounded to about a kilometre and sent only to the Orbinauts API, to find the pass.

Meanwhile, the next visible pass over three cities:

  • London
  • New York City
  • SydneyNo visible pass in the next 10 days

How to see it

It crosses the sky as a steady point of light, no brighter than a faint star, a few minutes from one horizon to the other and never blinking. Its orbit keeps it over the line between day and night, so the hour after sunset and the hour before sunrise are the times to look, under as dark a sky as you can find. It can be seen from anywhere on Earth.

Passes over: Madrid, Warsaw, Karachi, Manila, Wellington, Toronto, Santiago, Lagos, every city

Altitude

682 km683 km684 km685 km
Aqua, one reading a day from Sep 16, 2026 to Sep 18, 2026. The band runs from the lowest point of the orbit to the highest; the line is the middle of it.

One reading a day, worked out from the elements Space-Track publishes.

Timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched on Delta II from Vandenberg. Source

Summary

Over the Indian Ocean LIVE

Where is Aqua?

At 8:06:06 PM UTC Aqua was over the Indian Ocean (47.6° S, 104.5° E), 706 km up, moving at 7.5 km/s and in the Earth’s shadow.

What is Aqua?

A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since May 4, 2002.

Can I see Aqua tonight?

Yes: Aqua can be seen with the naked eye when it passes over you in a dark sky, after dusk or before dawn, as a steady light that crosses the sky in a few minutes.

General

The Aqua satellite in gold and silver thermal blankets, the round dish of an antenna at one end, lying on its stand in a clean room at Vandenberg before its launch in 2002.
Photograph: NASA (public domain)
Launched
Watches
The Earth’s water: evaporation from the oceans, water vapour, clouds, rain, sea ice and snow, with four of its six instruments still at work
Full picture of the Earth
Every 1 to 2 days, with its MODIS instrument
Operator
NASA, Terra’s afternoon twin in its Earth Observing System
Mass
about 2.9 t
Typical altitude
685 to 687 km
Speed
about 7.51 km/s (27,000 km/h)

Latest orbital data

Position received
8:06 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
8:06 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
47.6° S, 104.5° E
Altitude
706 km
Speed
7.5 km/s (27,004 km/h)
Course
south
Light
In the Earth’s shadow until 8:08 PM UTC
Inclination
98.4°
Orbital period
98.5 minutes
Orbits per day
14.62
This orbit
682 to 684 km
In shadow
22 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 1,950 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Sep 18, 2026, 4:32 AM, 15 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Sep 18, 2026, 4:32 AM, 15 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Aqua, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
Close approaches to Aqua are not available right now. Try again in a few minutes.
Losing to drag
Aqua is falling about 2 m a day, read from the last 2 days of samples.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Sep 18, 2026, 4:32 AM, 15 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "AQUA",
  "OBJECT_ID": "2002-022A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-09-18T04:32:00.237696",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 14.62205334,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00015279,
  "INCLINATION": 98.4397,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 232.3829,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 66.679,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 348.7758,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 27424,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 29686,
  "BSTAR": 0.00012441113,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000577,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}