Landsat 8

LIVE

Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/landsat-8

  • Earth-watching satellite
  • NORAD 39084
  • 2013-008A
  • Low Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where Landsat 8 is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over Greenland

Orbit ends over Canada

In the Earth’s shadow since

Back in sunlight

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Landsat 8 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 Landsat 8, 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.

Altitude

699 km699 km700 km700 km701 km701 km
Landsat 8, 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 Atlas V from Vandenberg. Source

Summary

Over the Baltic Sea LIVE

Where is Landsat 8?

At 8:07:21 PM UTC Landsat 8 was over the Baltic Sea (55.1° N, 19.3° E), 711 km up, moving at 7.51 km/s and in the Earth’s shadow.

What is Landsat 8?

A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Feb 11, 2013.

Can I see Landsat 8?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Landsat 8, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.

General

The Landsat 8 satellite in gold thermal blankets, its black solar panel folded against one side and its instruments under silver covers, at Vandenberg before its launch in 2013.
Photograph: NASA (public domain)
Launched
Watches
The land: the Earth’s surface in visible, near-infrared, shortwave-infrared and thermal light
Full picture of the Earth
Every 16 days of land, or every 8 together with Landsat 9
Operator
NASA and the US Geological Survey, which runs it and publishes the pictures
Mass
about 2.8 t
Typical altitude
702 to 703 km
Speed
about 7.5 km/s (27,000 km/h)

Latest orbital data

Position received
8:07 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
8:07 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
55.1° N, 19.3° E
Altitude
711 km
Speed
7.51 km/s (27,022 km/h)
Course
north
Light
In the Earth’s shadow until 8:07 PM UTC
Inclination
98.2°
Orbital period
98.8 minutes
Orbits per day
14.57
This orbit
699 to 701 km
In shadow
34 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 1,960 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Sep 18, 2026, 6:40 AM, 13 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Sep 18, 2026, 6:40 AM, 13 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Landsat 8, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
Close approaches to Landsat 8 are not available right now. Try again in a few minutes.
Losing to drag
Landsat 8 is falling about 1 m a day, read from the last 2 days of samples.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

The Landsat programme

Orbinauts also tracks:

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Sep 18, 2026, 6:40 AM, 13 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "LANDSAT 8",
  "OBJECT_ID": "2013-008A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-09-18T06:40:58.301184",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 14.57101025,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00013247,
  "INCLINATION": 98.2216,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 330.2664,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 94.6901,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 265.4449,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 39084,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 71145,
  "BSTAR": 0.000050204514,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000181,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}