Orbital Focus - International Spaceflight Facts and Figures
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Orbits


Tyneside, UK
2024 Apr 19
Friday, Day 110

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Primary source of unclassified orbital elements

Orbital elements based on amateur observations
Sun-synchronous Satellites - Meteorology

This a list of metsats in sun-synchronous orbit. Names are not necessarily those by which they are known in the NORAD catalogue used by SpaceTrack.

It is a snapshot and is updated daily. The measure that results in an entry in this table is that the drift rate of LTDN (Local Time at the Descending Node) is no more than twenty four minutes each year. Some satellites may have higher drift rates but they may still be acceptable to their owners/operators. They do not appear here. On the converse, although a satellite is in a sun-synchronous orbit, it is not necessarily active.

Cubesats less than 6U in size are excluded from the list because the vast majority reached space by hitch hiking and their final orbit was not important. Listing them would create an unnecessarily long page.

The menu on the left leads to some, hopefully useful, sub-lists of the satellites on this page.

Updated: 2024 Apr 18, 02:48 UTC

LTDN Satellite Cat
no
Desig- nation Orbit
Epoch
Orbit
18:34AMS 3 (DMSP 5D-1 F-3)108201978-042A2024 Apr 17763 x 777 km, 100.2 min, 98°.5
02:35AMS 4 (DMSP 5D-1 F-4)113891979-050A2024 Apr 17788 x 804 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5
20:26DMSP 4A F-9 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)29201967-080A2024 Apr 17814 x 871 km, 101.8 min, 98°.7
14:10DMSP 5A F-2 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)35101968-092A2024 Apr 17777 x 822 km, 100.9 min, 98°.5
20:33DMSP 5A F-3 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)40471969-062A2024 Apr 17762 x 827 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5
17:10DMSP 5B F-3 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)62751972-089A2024 Apr 17770 x 822 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5
20:10DMSP 5B F-4 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)67871973-054A2024 Apr 17764 x 801 km, 100.5 min, 98°.7
19:14DMSP 5C F-1 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)74111974-063A2024 Apr 17766 x 826 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6
19:17DMSP 5C F-2 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)78161975-043A2024 Apr 17773 x 848 km, 101.1 min, 98°.7
17:55DMSP 5D-2 F-6 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)137361982-118A2024 Apr 17786 x 798 km, 100.7 min, 98°.6
23:58ESSA 220911966-016A2024 Apr 171354 x 1415 km, 113.4 min, 101°.3
02:06ESSA 836151968-114A2024 Apr 171413 x 1464 km, 114.6 min, 101°.6
04:26Fengyun 1B (Fengyun 1-02)207881990-081A2024 Apr 17872 x 895 km, 102.6 min, 98°.9
02:05Fengyun 3A (Fengyun 3-01)329582008-026A2024 Apr 17823 x 834 km, 101.5 min, 98°.6
05:37Fengyun 3E (Fengyun 3-05)490082021-062A2024 Apr 17825 x 827 km, 101.4 min, 98°.7
02:59Meteor M-1358652009-049A2024 Apr 17814 x 819 km, 101.2 min, 98°.6
09:23MetOp-B387712012-049A2024 Apr 17819 x 821 km, 101.3 min, 98°.6
09:29MetOp-C436892018-087A2024 Apr 17820 x 821 km, 101.3 min, 98°.7
22:33Nimbus 3 (Nimbus B2)38901969-037A2024 Apr 171070 x 1130 km, 107.3 min, 99°.8
00:02Nimbus 4 (Nimbus D)43621970-025A2024 Apr 171086 x 1098 km, 107.1 min, 100°.0
23:12Nimbus 5 (Nimbus E)63051972-097A2024 Apr 171088 x 1099 km, 107.1 min, 99°.9
23:29Nimbus 6 (Nimbus F)79241975-052A2024 Apr 171101 x 1112 km, 107.4 min, 100°.0
03:43NOAA 5 (ITOS H)90571976-077A2024 Apr 171508 x 1524 km, 116.3 min, 102°.2
06:54NOAA 6114161979-057A2024 Apr 17769 x 785 km, 100.4 min, 98°.6
04:35NOAA 10169691986-073A2024 Apr 17787 x 806 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6
04:59NOAA 12212631991-032A2024 Apr 17794 x 814 km, 101.0 min, 98°.6
07:23NOAA 15253381998-030A2024 Apr 17795 x 811 km, 100.9 min, 98°.6
02:12NOAA 17274532002-032A2024 Apr 17798 x 816 km, 101.0 min, 98°.8
10:39NOAA 18286542005-018A2024 Apr 17839 x 858 km, 101.9 min, 98°.9
01:25NOAA 20 (JPSS, Joint Polar Satellite System 1)430132017-073A2024 Apr 17826 x 828 km, 101.4 min, 98°.7
13:12TIROS 1014301965-051A2024 Apr 17717 x 795 km, 99.9 min, 98°.4
17:55USA 26 (DMSP 5D-2 F-8)181231987-053A2024 Apr 17819 x 836 km, 101.5 min, 98°.7
07:33USA 73 (DMSP 5D-2 F-11)217981991-082A2024 Apr 17826 x 845 km, 101.6 min, 98°.8
09:10USA 106 (DMSP 5D-2 S-12)232331994-057A2024 Apr 17831 x 848 km, 101.7 min, 98°.8
06:09USA 109 (DMSP 5D-2 F-13)235331995-015A2024 Apr 17833 x 842 km, 101.7 min, 98°.8
08:30USA 131 (DMSP 5D-2 F-14)247531997-012A2024 Apr 17832 x 844 km, 101.7 min, 98°.9
06:16USA 191 (DMSP 5D-3 F-17)295222006-050A2024 Apr 17836 x 852 km, 101.8 min, 98°.7
03:54USA 210 (DMSP 5D-3 F-18)359512009-057A2024 Apr 17838 x 853 km, 101.8 min, 98°.8
05:40USA 249 (DMSP 5D-3 F-19)396302014-015A2024 Apr 17838 x 851 km, 101.8 min, 98°.8

For the satellites that do not have formal published elements, thanks go to the radio and visual amateur satellite trackers for their observing, and particularly to Mike McCants for archiving the derived orbits.

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