- Earth-watching satellite
- Sentinel-6MF
- NORAD 46984
- 2020-086A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Southern Ocean
Orbit ends over the Southern Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich 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-6 Michael Freilich, 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
One reading a day, worked out from the elements Space-Track publishes.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched on Falcon 9 from Vandenberg. Source
Summary
Over the Southern Ocean LIVE
Where is Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich?
At 8:07:32 PM UTC Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich was over the Southern Ocean (61.7° S, 54.4° W), 1,355 km up, moving at 7.18 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Nov 21, 2020.
Can I see Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Launched
- Watches
- The height of the sea, extending the record of sea level rise kept since 1992, and the temperature of the atmosphere
- Full picture of the Earth
- 95% of the ice-free ocean every 10 days
- Operator
- EUMETSAT, for the European Union’s Copernicus programme, with ESA, NASA, NOAA and France’s space agency CNES
- Mass
- about 1.2 t
- Typical altitude
- 1,332 to 1,344 km
- Speed
- about 7.19 km/s (25,900 km/h)
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 8:07 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 8:07 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 61.7° S, 54.4° W
- Altitude
- 1,355 km
- Speed
- 7.18 km/s (25,862 km/h)
- Course
- north-east
- Light
- In sunlight until 8:30 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 66°
- Orbital period
- 112.4 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 12.81
- This orbit
- 1,330 to 1,342 km
- In shadow
- 18 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,860 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Sep 18, 2026, 1:46 AM, 18 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Sep 18, 2026, 1:46 AM, 18 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- Close approaches to Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich are not available right now. Try again in a few minutes.
- Losing to drag
- Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich has not fallen measurably over the last 2 days of samples.
The Copernicus Sentinel-6 programme
Orbinauts also tracks:
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Sep 18, 2026, 1:46 AM, 18 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "S6 MICHAEL FREILICH",
"OBJECT_ID": "2020-086A",
"EPOCH": "2026-09-18T01:46:27.107904",
"MEAN_MOTION": 12.80929458,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00079117,
"INCLINATION": 66.0412,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 302.1264,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 269.0005,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 91.0104,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 46984,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 27222,
"BSTAR": 0.000067960305,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -4.5e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}