Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 16

LIVE

Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/goes-16

  • Earth-watching satellite
  • GOES-16
  • NORAD 41866
  • 2016-071A
  • Geostationary

Current orbit

Where GOES-16 is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

One orbit takes a day, as long as the Earth takes to turn, so GOES-16 keeps above 104.7° W of the equator and never crosses the sky.

Past trackNext orbits

It never rises or sets

GOES-16 turns with the Earth, standing over one longitude of the equator. From anywhere it can be seen at all it is up day and night, in the same direction, so there is no pass to wait for.

No brightness has been published for GOES-16, 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 wait for: it never crosses the sky. From the half of the Earth it stands over it keeps the same point day and night, and from the other half it never rises at all.

Timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched on Atlas V from Cape Canaveral. Source

Summary

Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE

Where is GOES-16?

At 8:06:58 PM UTC GOES-16 was over the Pacific Ocean (0.5° N, 104.7° W), 35,779 km up, standing over one longitude of the equator and in sunlight.

What is GOES-16?

A satellite that watches the Earth in geostationary orbit, in space since Nov 19, 2016.

Can I see GOES-16?

No, not with the naked eye, and it never crosses the sky: GOES-16 stands over 104.7° W of the equator; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.

General

The GOES-R weather satellite, later named GOES-16, standing fully assembled in a clean room in Titusville, Florida, in September 2016, with a technician at its base.
Photograph: NASA / Dimitri Gerondidakis (public domain)
Launched
Watches
The Western Hemisphere, when in service: clouds, storms, lightning, wildfires and the Sun
Full picture of the Earth
Every 10 minutes, when in service
Operator
NOAA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Role
The primary on-orbit backup for GOES East and GOES West, kept in storage over 104.7° W
Took over from
GOES-13, as GOES East, on Dec 18, 2017
Handed over to
GOES-19, as GOES East, on Apr 7, 2025
Mass
about 5.2 t
Typical altitude
35,786 to 35,786 km
Speed
about 3.07 km/s (11,100 km/h)

Latest orbital data

Position received
8:06 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
8:06 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
0.5° N, 104.7° W
Altitude
35,779 km
Speed
3.08 km/s (11,070 km/h)
Course
Stands over 104.7° W
Light
In sunlight until 6:17 AM UTC
Inclination
0.6°
Orbital period
1,436.1 minutes
Orbits per day
1
This orbit
35,781 to 35,794 km
In view from
Within 7,940 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Sep 18, 2026, 5:16 AM, 14 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Sep 18, 2026, 5:16 AM, 14 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for GOES-16, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
Close approaches to GOES-16 are not available right now. Try again in a few minutes.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

The GOES programme

Orbinauts also tracks:

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Sep 18, 2026, 5:16 AM, 14 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "GOES 16",
  "OBJECT_ID": "2016-071A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-09-18T05:16:22.473984",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 1.00271876,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00016199,
  "INCLINATION": 0.5651,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 84.4645,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 126.7714,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 120.3315,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 41866,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 3603,
  "BSTAR": 0,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -9.5e-7,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}