- Communications satellite
- NORAD 53807
- 2022-111AL
- Low Earth orbit
- Naked-eye
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Sea of Okhotsk
Orbit ends over the People's Republic of China
In the Earth’s shadow since
Back in sunlight
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:
How to see it
It crosses the sky as a steady point of light, no brighter than a faint star, taking a few minutes from horizon to horizon and never blinking. Look in the hour or two after sunset or before sunrise, while the sky is dark and it is still in sunlight. It can be seen as far north and south as about 66°.
Passes over: London, Berlin, New York City, Mexico City, Delhi, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Auckland, every city
Altitude
One reading a day, worked out from the elements Space-Track publishes.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched on SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral. Source
Summary
Over the Central African Republic LIVE
Where is BlueWalker 3?
At 8:06:57 PM UTC BlueWalker 3 was over the Central African Republic (6.5° N, 19.4° E), 449 km up, moving at 7.64 km/s and in the Earth’s shadow.
What is BlueWalker 3?
A communications satellite in low Earth orbit, in space since Sep 11, 2022.
Can I see BlueWalker 3 tonight?
Yes: BlueWalker 3 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
- Launched
- Carries
- Test calls, video and 5G broadband straight to everyday, unmodified smartphones, from a phased array of 64 m²
- Covers
- A field of view of more than 775,000 km² below it, wherever its orbit takes it
- Operator
- AST SpaceMobile, which built it as the prototype of its BlueBird satellites
- Design life
- 2 years
- Mass
- about 1.5 t
- Typical altitude
- 443 to 453 km
- Speed
- about 7.64 km/s (27,500 km/h)
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 8:06 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 8:06 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 6.5° N, 19.4° E
- Altitude
- 449 km
- Speed
- 7.64 km/s (27,518 km/h)
- Course
- north-east
- Light
- In the Earth’s shadow until 8:28 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 53.2°
- Orbital period
- 93.5 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 15.39
- This orbit
- 444 to 453 km
- In shadow
- 34 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 1,450 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Sep 18, 2026, 4:29 AM, 15 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Sep 18, 2026, 4:29 AM, 15 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for BlueWalker 3, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- Close approaches to BlueWalker 3 are not available right now. Try again in a few minutes.
- Losing to drag
- BlueWalker 3 is falling about 19 m a day, read from the last 2 days of samples.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Sep 18, 2026, 4:29 AM, 15 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "BLUEWALKER 3",
"OBJECT_ID": "2022-111AL",
"EPOCH": "2026-09-18T04:29:52.100448",
"MEAN_MOTION": 15.3928784,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.0007233,
"INCLINATION": 53.229,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 317.0133,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 102.2547,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 257.9269,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 53807,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 22452,
"BSTAR": 0.00011210226,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00004039,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}