Vanguard 1

LIVE

Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/vanguard-1

  • Pioneer
  • NORAD 5
  • 1958-002B
  • Medium Earth orbit

Current orbit

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

Orbit began over Brazil

Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean

Sunlit since

Enters the Earth’s shadow

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Vanguard 1 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.

Even at its closest, Vanguard 1 is too faint to see with the naked eye from anywhere on Earth, so no city page carries pass times for it.

Seeing it

There is nothing to go outside for: it is too faint for the naked eye. It is still up there all the same, going round as it has since it was launched.

Timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched on Vanguard from Cape Canaveral. Source

  2. End of mission

    Its mission ended.

Summary

Over the Philippine Sea LIVE

Where is Vanguard 1?

At 8:07:00 PM UTC Vanguard 1 was over the Philippine Sea (28.4° N, 137.9° E), 3,386 km up, moving at 5.95 km/s and in sunlight.

What is Vanguard 1?

One of the pioneers of spaceflight in medium Earth orbit, in space since Mar 17, 1958; its mission ended in 1964.

Can I see Vanguard 1?

No, not with the naked eye: even at its closest, Vanguard 1 is too faint to see from anywhere on Earth; what it is now is a relic of the first years in orbit.

General

Vanguard 1, the polished 16-centimetre sphere with six antennas, being fitted to its rocket by a team of Naval Research Laboratory scientists in 1958.
Photograph: US Naval Research Laboratory (public domain)
Launched
Ended
Remembered for
Being the first satellite powered by solar cells, and the oldest human-made object still in orbit
Operator
The US Naval Research Laboratory, which built it and ran Project Vanguard
Size
a sphere 0.15 m across
Mass
1.5 kg
Typical altitude
653 to 3,817 km
Speed
about 5.65 to 8.19 km/s (20,300 to 29,500 km/h)

Latest orbital data

Position received
8:07 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
8:07 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
28.4° N, 137.9° E
Altitude
3,386 km
Speed
5.95 km/s (21,424 km/h)
Course
north-east
Light
In sunlight until 9:18 PM UTC
Inclination
34.3°
Orbital period
132.6 minutes
Orbits per day
10.86
This orbit
655 to 3,821 km
In shadow
38 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 4,450 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Sep 16, 2026, 10:15 AM, 2 days old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Sep 16, 2026, 10:15 AM, 2 days old.

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

In orbit

Close approaches
Close approaches to Vanguard 1 are not available right now. Try again in a few minutes.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Sep 16, 2026, 10:15 AM, 2 days old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "VANGUARD 1",
  "OBJECT_ID": "1958-002B",
  "EPOCH": "2026-09-16T10:15:52.137792",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 10.86053083,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.18376845,
  "INCLINATION": 34.2502,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 32.7157,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 189.9666,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 165.901,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 5,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 45320,
  "BSTAR": 0.00046904461,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000378,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}