Meteosat-12

LIVE

Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/meteosat-12

  • Earth-watching satellite
  • NORAD 54743
  • 2022-170C
  • Geostationary

Current orbit

Where Meteosat-12 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 Meteosat-12 keeps above 0.5° W of the equator and never crosses the sky.

Past trackNext orbits

It never rises or sets

Meteosat-12 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 Meteosat-12, 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 Ariane 5 ECA from Kourou. Source

Summary

Over the Atlantic Ocean LIVE

Where is Meteosat-12?

At 8:07:28 PM UTC Meteosat-12 was over the Atlantic Ocean (0.7° S, 0.5° W), 35,802 km up, standing over one longitude of the equator and in sunlight.

What is Meteosat-12?

A satellite that watches the Earth in geostationary orbit, in space since Dec 13, 2022.

Can I see Meteosat-12?

No, not with the naked eye, and it never crosses the sky: Meteosat-12 stands over 0.5° W of the equator; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.

General

Artist's rendering of a Meteosat Third Generation imaging satellite, the design Meteosat-12 is the first of, with its two solar wings open in orbit.
Rendering: ESA (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)
Launched
Watches
Europe, Africa and the oceans around them: their clouds, storms and lightning, day and night
Full picture of the Earth
Every 10 minutes
Operator
EUMETSAT, Europe’s meteorological satellite agency, for its 30 member states
Took over from
Meteosat-10, as Europe’s prime geostationary service, on Jun 16, 2025
Mass
about 3.8 t
Typical altitude
35,786 to 35,786 km
Speed
about 3.07 km/s (11,100 km/h)

Latest orbital data

Position received
8:07 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
8:07 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
0.7° S, 0.5° W
Altitude
35,802 km
Speed
3.07 km/s (11,066 km/h)
Course
Stands over 0.5° W
Light
In sunlight until 11:21 PM UTC
Inclination
0.7°
Orbital period
1,436.1 minutes
Orbits per day
1
This orbit
35,771 to 35,804 km
In view from
Within 7,940 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Sep 18, 2026, 6:45 AM, 13 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Sep 18, 2026, 6:45 AM, 13 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Meteosat-12, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
Close approaches to Meteosat-12 are not available right now. Try again in a few minutes.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

The Meteosat programme

Orbinauts also tracks:

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Sep 18, 2026, 6:45 AM, 13 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "METEOSAT 12 (MTG I1)",
  "OBJECT_ID": "2022-170C",
  "EPOCH": "2026-09-18T06:45:21.269952",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 1.00272393,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.0003893,
  "INCLINATION": 0.7343,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 19.6822,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 93.2705,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 345.1314,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 54743,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 1391,
  "BSTAR": 0,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -1.2e-7,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}