Orbital Focus - International Spaceflight Facts and Figures
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Orbits


Tyneside, UK
2024 Oct 3
Thursday, Day 277

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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 Jun 27, 02:48 UTC

LTDN Satellite Cat
no
Desig- nation Orbit
Epoch
Orbit
18:34AMS 3 (DMSP 5D-1 F-3)108201978-042A2024 Jun 26763 x 776 km, 100.2 min, 98°.5
02:33AMS 4 (DMSP 5D-1 F-4)113891979-050A2024 Jun 26787 x 805 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5
16:16DMSP 4A F-7 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)24181966-082A2024 Jun 26665 x 833 km, 99.8 min, 98°.2
20:22DMSP 4A F-9 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)29201967-080A2024 Jun 26816 x 869 km, 101.8 min, 98°.7
14:06DMSP 5A F-2 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)35101968-092A2024 Jun 26779 x 820 km, 100.9 min, 98°.5
20:31DMSP 5A F-3 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)40471969-062A2024 Jun 26764 x 826 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5
17:06DMSP 5B F-3 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)62751972-089A2024 Jun 26771 x 820 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5
20:14DMSP 5B F-4 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)67871973-054A2024 Jun 26764 x 801 km, 100.5 min, 98°.7
19:13DMSP 5C F-1 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)74111974-063A2024 Jun 26766 x 825 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6
19:17DMSP 5C F-2 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)78161975-043A2024 Jun 26772 x 849 km, 101.1 min, 98°.7
17:56DMSP 5D-2 F-6 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)137361982-118A2024 Jun 26787 x 797 km, 100.7 min, 98°.6
23:55ESSA 220911966-016A2024 Jun 261355 x 1414 km, 113.4 min, 101°.2
02:05ESSA 836151968-114A2024 Jun 261414 x 1463 km, 114.6 min, 101°.6
04:24Fengyun 1B (Fengyun 1-02)207881990-081A2024 Jun 26872 x 895 km, 102.6 min, 98°.9
02:01Fengyun 3A (Fengyun 3-01)329582008-026A2024 Jun 26821 x 835 km, 101.5 min, 98°.6
05:38Fengyun 3E (Fengyun 3-05)490082021-062A2024 Jun 26825 x 828 km, 101.4 min, 98°.7
02:58Meteor M-1358652009-049A2024 Jun 26815 x 817 km, 101.2 min, 98°.6
09:21MetOp-B387712012-049A2024 Jun 26819 x 822 km, 101.3 min, 98°.6
09:30MetOp-C436892018-087A2024 Jun 26818 x 823 km, 101.3 min, 98°.7
22:29Nimbus 3 (Nimbus B2)38901969-037A2024 Jun 261071 x 1129 km, 107.3 min, 99°.8
00:03Nimbus 4 (Nimbus D)43621970-025A2024 Jun 261087 x 1097 km, 107.1 min, 100°.0
23:10Nimbus 5 (Nimbus E)63051972-097A2024 Jun 261087 x 1100 km, 107.1 min, 99°.9
23:31Nimbus 6 (Nimbus F)79241975-052A2024 Jun 261100 x 1112 km, 107.4 min, 100°.0
03:47NOAA 5 (ITOS H)90571976-077A2024 Jun 261509 x 1523 km, 116.3 min, 102°.2
06:58NOAA 6114161979-057A2024 Jun 26770 x 783 km, 100.4 min, 98°.6
09:30NOAA 7125531981-059A2024 Jun 26825 x 842 km, 101.6 min, 98°.9
04:37NOAA 10169691986-073A2024 Jun 26788 x 804 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6
04:57NOAA 12212631991-032A2024 Jun 26795 x 814 km, 101.0 min, 98°.6
07:21NOAA 15253381998-030A2024 Jun 26796 x 810 km, 100.9 min, 98°.6
02:15NOAA 17274532002-032A2024 Jun 26799 x 814 km, 101.0 min, 98°.8
10:41NOAA 18286542005-018A2024 Jun 26838 x 859 km, 101.9 min, 98°.9
01:24NOAA 20 (JPSS, Joint Polar Satellite System 1)430132017-073A2024 Jun 26826 x 828 km, 101.4 min, 98°.7
13:12TIROS 1014301965-051A2024 Jun 26715 x 796 km, 99.9 min, 98°.4
17:55USA 26 (DMSP 5D-2 F-8)181231987-053A2024 Jun 26818 x 838 km, 101.5 min, 98°.7
07:34USA 73 (DMSP 5D-2 F-11)217981991-082A2024 Jun 26826 x 845 km, 101.6 min, 98°.8
09:10USA 106 (DMSP 5D-2 S-12)232331994-057A2024 Jun 26831 x 847 km, 101.7 min, 98°.8
06:11USA 109 (DMSP 5D-2 F-13)235331995-015A2024 Jun 26832 x 843 km, 101.7 min, 98°.8
08:32USA 131 (DMSP 5D-2 F-14)247531997-012A2024 Jun 26832 x 844 km, 101.7 min, 98°.9
06:15USA 191 (DMSP 5D-3 F-17)295222006-050A2024 Jun 26837 x 851 km, 101.8 min, 98°.7
03:54USA 210 (DMSP 5D-3 F-18)359512009-057A2024 Jun 26837 x 854 km, 101.8 min, 98°.8
05:39USA 249 (DMSP 5D-3 F-19)396302014-015A2024 Jun 26836 x 853 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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