Orbital Focus - International Spaceflight Facts and Figures
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Orbits


Tyneside, UK
2024 Mar 29
Friday, Day 89

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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 Mar 29, 03:48 UTC

LTDN Satellite Cat
no
Desig- nation Orbit
Epoch
Orbit
18:34AMS 3 (DMSP 5D-1 F-3)108201978-042A2024 Mar 28764 x 776 km, 100.2 min, 98°.5
02:35AMS 4 (DMSP 5D-1 F-4)113891979-050A2024 Mar 28788 x 805 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5
20:27DMSP 4A F-9 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)29201967-080A2024 Mar 28815 x 870 km, 101.8 min, 98°.7
14:12DMSP 5A F-2 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)35101968-092A2024 Mar 28778 x 821 km, 100.9 min, 98°.5
20:33DMSP 5A F-3 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)40471969-062A2024 Mar 28762 x 827 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5
17:11DMSP 5B F-3 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)62751972-089A2024 Mar 28771 x 821 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5
20:09DMSP 5B F-4 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)67871973-054A2024 Mar 28765 x 801 km, 100.5 min, 98°.7
19:14DMSP 5C F-1 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)74111974-063A2024 Mar 28767 x 825 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6
19:16DMSP 5C F-2 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)78161975-043A2024 Mar 28773 x 849 km, 101.1 min, 98°.7
17:55DMSP 5D-2 F-6 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)137361982-118A2024 Mar 28787 x 798 km, 100.7 min, 98°.6
23:59ESSA 220911966-016A2024 Mar 281354 x 1415 km, 113.4 min, 101°.3
02:06ESSA 836151968-114A2024 Mar 281413 x 1464 km, 114.6 min, 101°.6
04:27Fengyun 1B (Fengyun 1-02)207881990-081A2024 Mar 28871 x 896 km, 102.6 min, 98°.9
02:06Fengyun 3A (Fengyun 3-01)329582008-026A2024 Mar 28823 x 834 km, 101.5 min, 98°.6
05:37Fengyun 3E (Fengyun 3-05)490082021-062A2024 Mar 28826 x 827 km, 101.4 min, 98°.7
03:00Meteor M-1358652009-049A2024 Mar 28814 x 819 km, 101.2 min, 98°.6
09:24MetOp-B387712012-049A2024 Mar 28820 x 821 km, 101.3 min, 98°.6
09:29MetOp-C436892018-087A2024 Mar 28819 x 821 km, 101.3 min, 98°.7
22:34Nimbus 3 (Nimbus B2)38901969-037A2024 Mar 281070 x 1129 km, 107.3 min, 99°.8
00:02Nimbus 4 (Nimbus D)43621970-025A2024 Mar 281086 x 1098 km, 107.1 min, 100°.0
23:12Nimbus 5 (Nimbus E)63051972-097A2024 Mar 281088 x 1100 km, 107.1 min, 99°.9
23:29Nimbus 6 (Nimbus F)79241975-052A2024 Mar 281100 x 1113 km, 107.4 min, 100°.0
03:42NOAA 5 (ITOS H)90571976-077A2024 Mar 281508 x 1524 km, 116.3 min, 102°.2
06:53NOAA 6114161979-057A2024 Mar 28769 x 785 km, 100.4 min, 98°.6
04:35NOAA 10169691986-073A2024 Mar 28788 x 805 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6
05:00NOAA 12212631991-032A2024 Mar 28795 x 813 km, 101.0 min, 98°.6
07:23NOAA 15253381998-030A2024 Mar 28796 x 811 km, 100.9 min, 98°.6
02:11NOAA 17274532002-032A2024 Mar 28798 x 815 km, 101.0 min, 98°.8
10:38NOAA 18286542005-018A2024 Mar 28839 x 858 km, 101.9 min, 98°.9
01:25NOAA 20 (JPSS, Joint Polar Satellite System 1)430132017-073A2024 Mar 28816 x 827 km, 101.3 min, 98°.7
13:12TIROS 1014301965-051A2024 Mar 28716 x 795 km, 99.9 min, 98°.4
17:55USA 26 (DMSP 5D-2 F-8)181231987-053A2024 Mar 28819 x 837 km, 101.5 min, 98°.7
07:33USA 73 (DMSP 5D-2 F-11)217981991-082A2024 Mar 28825 x 846 km, 101.6 min, 98°.8
09:10USA 106 (DMSP 5D-2 S-12)232331994-057A2024 Mar 28831 x 848 km, 101.7 min, 98°.8
06:09USA 109 (DMSP 5D-2 F-13)235331995-015A2024 Mar 28833 x 842 km, 101.7 min, 98°.8
08:29USA 131 (DMSP 5D-2 F-14)247531997-012A2024 Mar 28832 x 844 km, 101.7 min, 98°.9
06:17USA 191 (DMSP 5D-3 F-17)295222006-050A2024 Mar 28837 x 851 km, 101.8 min, 98°.7
03:54USA 210 (DMSP 5D-3 F-18)359512009-057A2024 Mar 28837 x 854 km, 101.8 min, 98°.8
05:40USA 249 (DMSP 5D-3 F-19)396302014-015A2024 Mar 28837 x 852 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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