SAOCOM 1A

LIVE

Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/saocom-1a

  • Earth-watching satellite
  • NORAD 43641
  • 2018-076A
  • Low Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where SAOCOM 1A is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over the Arctic Ocean

Orbit ends over the Kara Sea

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches SAOCOM 1A 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 SAOCOM 1A, 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

618 km619 km620 km621 km
SAOCOM 1A, 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 Falcon 9 Block 5 from Vandenberg. Source

Summary

Over the Coral Sea LIVE

Where is SAOCOM 1A?

At 8:06:34 PM UTC SAOCOM 1A was over the Coral Sea (14.8° S, 149.9° E), 629 km up, moving at 7.54 km/s and in sunlight.

What is SAOCOM 1A?

A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Oct 8, 2018.

Can I see SAOCOM 1A?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for SAOCOM 1A, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.

General

The SAOCOM 1A satellite in a test hall in Bariloche before its launch, its gold-foiled body upright at the centre of its unfolded radar antenna, technicians in clean-room suits looking on.
Photograph: CONAE (CC BY 4.0)
Launched
Watches
The soil and its moisture by L-band radar, day and night and through cloud, for farming and emergencies: oil spills at sea and flooded land
Full picture of the Earth
Every 16 days on its own, or every 8 together with SAOCOM 1B
Operator
CONAE, Argentina’s space agency, from its control centre in Córdoba, with Italy’s COSMO-SkyMed satellites
Mass
about 3 t
Typical altitude
622 to 624 km
Speed
about 7.55 km/s (27,200 km/h)

Latest orbital data

Position received
8:06 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
8:06 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
14.8° S, 149.9° E
Altitude
629 km
Speed
7.54 km/s (27,155 km/h)
Course
north
Light
In sunlight
Inclination
97.9°
Orbital period
97.2 minutes
Orbits per day
14.82
This orbit
619 to 621 km
In shadow
None of this orbit
In view from
Within 1,810 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Sep 18, 2026, 7:12 AM, 12 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Sep 18, 2026, 7:12 AM, 12 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for SAOCOM 1A, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
Close approaches to SAOCOM 1A are not available right now. Try again in a few minutes.
Losing to drag
SAOCOM 1A is falling about 5 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, 7:12 AM, 12 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "SAOCOM 1-A",
  "OBJECT_ID": "2018-076A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-09-18T07:12:52.437888",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 14.82147914,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00014456,
  "INCLINATION": 97.8898,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 86.7123,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 82.6137,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 277.524,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 43641,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 42989,
  "BSTAR": 0.000048406795,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000333,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}