Sentinel-3A

LIVE

Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/sentinel-3a

  • Earth-watching satellite
  • NORAD 41335
  • 2016-011A
  • Low Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where Sentinel-3A is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over the Northwest Passage

Orbit ends over the Beaufort Sea

In the Earth’s shadow since

Back in sunlight

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Sentinel-3A 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 Sentinel-3A, 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

799 km799 km800 km800 km801 km801 km
Sentinel-3A, 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 Rockot from Plesetsk. Source

Summary

Over Zambia LIVE

Where is Sentinel-3A?

At 8:06:57 PM UTC Sentinel-3A was over Zambia (9° S, 29.7° E), 808 km up, moving at 7.45 km/s and in the Earth’s shadow.

What is Sentinel-3A?

A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Feb 16, 2016.

Can I see Sentinel-3A?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Sentinel-3A, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.

General

Launched
Watches
The oceans and the land: the height of the sea, the temperature of sea and land, and the colour of both
Full picture of the Earth
Under 2 days for the colour of ocean and land, and under 1 for their temperature, together with Sentinel-3B
Operator
EUMETSAT, which flies it with ESA for the European Union’s Copernicus programme: EUMETSAT delivers its marine data and ESA its land data
Mass
about 1.2 t
Typical altitude
802 to 804 km
Speed
about 7.45 km/s (26,800 km/h)

Latest orbital data

Position received
8:06 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
8:06 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
9° S, 29.7° E
Altitude
808 km
Speed
7.45 km/s (26,816 km/h)
Course
north
Light
In the Earth’s shadow until 8:24 PM UTC
Inclination
98.6°
Orbital period
100.9 minutes
Orbits per day
14.27
This orbit
799 to 801 km
In shadow
33 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 2,120 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Sep 18, 2026, 6:41 AM, 13 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Sep 18, 2026, 6:41 AM, 13 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Sentinel-3A, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
Close approaches to Sentinel-3A are not available right now. Try again in a few minutes.
Losing to drag
Sentinel-3A is falling less than a metre a day, read from the last 2 days of samples.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

The Copernicus Sentinel-3 programme

Orbinauts also tracks:

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Sep 18, 2026, 6:41 AM, 13 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "SENTINEL 3A",
  "OBJECT_ID": "2016-011A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-09-18T06:41:35.888640",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 14.26735394,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00011459,
  "INCLINATION": 98.6277,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 327.314,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 106.6137,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 253.517,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 41335,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 55133,
  "BSTAR": 0.000034972749,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 4.1e-7,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}