Orbital Focus - International Spaceflight Facts and Figures
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Orbits


Tyneside, UK
2025 Jan 26
Sunday, Day 26

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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: 2025 Jan 26, 04:47 UTC

LTDN Satellite Cat
no
Desig- nation Orbit
Epoch
Orbit
18:33AMS 3 (DMSP 5D-1 F-3)108201978-042A2025 Jan 25760 x 775 km, 100.2 min, 98°.5
02:28AMS 4 (DMSP 5D-1 F-4)113891979-050A2025 Jan 25787 x 803 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6
16:02DMSP 4A F-7 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)24181966-082A2025 Jan 25664 x 831 km, 99.8 min, 98°.3
20:10DMSP 4A F-9 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)29201967-080A2025 Jan 25814 x 869 km, 101.8 min, 98°.6
13:55DMSP 5A F-2 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)35101968-092A2025 Jan 25777 x 820 km, 100.8 min, 98°.5
20:22DMSP 5A F-3 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)40471969-062A2025 Jan 25763 x 825 km, 100.7 min, 98°.5
16:55DMSP 5B F-3 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)62751972-089A2025 Jan 25768 x 819 km, 100.7 min, 98°.5
20:25DMSP 5B F-4 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)67871973-054A2025 Jan 25762 x 800 km, 100.5 min, 98°.6
19:10DMSP 5C F-1 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)74111974-063A2025 Jan 25764 x 824 km, 100.8 min, 98°.6
19:18DMSP 5C F-2 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)78161975-043A2025 Jan 25772 x 846 km, 101.1 min, 98°.7
17:57DMSP 5D-2 F-6 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program)137361982-118A2025 Jan 25785 x 797 km, 100.7 min, 98°.6
23:47ESSA 220911966-016A2025 Jan 251354 x 1414 km, 113.4 min, 101°.3
02:03ESSA 836151968-114A2025 Jan 251414 x 1463 km, 114.6 min, 101°.6
08:42Fengyun 1A (Fengyun 1-01)194671988-080A2025 Jan 25872 x 892 km, 102.6 min, 99°.1
04:17Fengyun 1B (Fengyun 1-02)207881990-081A2025 Jan 25872 x 894 km, 102.6 min, 98°.9
01:49Fengyun 3A (Fengyun 3-01)329582008-026A2025 Jan 25821 x 834 km, 101.5 min, 98°.6
05:39Fengyun 3E (Fengyun 3-05)490082021-062A2025 Jan 25824 x 828 km, 101.4 min, 98°.7
02:55Meteor M-1358652009-049A2025 Jan 25814 x 817 km, 101.2 min, 98°.7
09:13MetOp-B387712012-049A2025 Jan 25819 x 822 km, 101.3 min, 98°.6
09:31MetOp-C436892018-087A2025 Jan 25819 x 822 km, 101.3 min, 98°.7
22:15Nimbus 3 (Nimbus B2)38901969-037A2025 Jan 251070 x 1129 km, 107.3 min, 99°.8
00:06Nimbus 4 (Nimbus D)43621970-025A2025 Jan 251086 x 1098 km, 107.1 min, 100°.0
23:05Nimbus 5 (Nimbus E)63051972-097A2025 Jan 251088 x 1100 km, 107.1 min, 99°.9
23:34Nimbus 6 (Nimbus F)79241975-052A2025 Jan 251100 x 1112 km, 107.4 min, 100°.0
03:59NOAA 5 (ITOS H)90571976-077A2025 Jan 251508 x 1523 km, 116.3 min, 102°.2
07:09NOAA 6114161979-057A2025 Jan 25768 x 782 km, 100.4 min, 98°.6
09:42NOAA 7125531981-059A2025 Jan 25826 x 841 km, 101.6 min, 98°.9
04:42NOAA 10169691986-073A2025 Jan 25786 x 805 km, 100.8 min, 98°.7
04:51NOAA 12212631991-032A2025 Jan 25793 x 814 km, 100.9 min, 98°.6
07:15NOAA 15253381998-030A2025 Jan 25794 x 810 km, 100.9 min, 98°.5
10:45NOAA 18286542005-018A2025 Jan 25837 x 858 km, 101.9 min, 98°.9
01:23NOAA 20 (JPSS, Joint Polar Satellite System 1)430132017-073A2025 Jan 25826 x 827 km, 101.4 min, 98°.7
13:14TIROS 1014301965-051A2025 Jan 25714 x 794 km, 99.9 min, 98°.5
17:54USA 26 (DMSP 5D-2 F-8)181231987-053A2025 Jan 25818 x 836 km, 101.5 min, 98°.7
07:33USA 73 (DMSP 5D-2 F-11)217981991-082A2025 Jan 25826 x 843 km, 101.6 min, 98°.7
09:08USA 106 (DMSP 5D-2 S-12)232331994-057A2025 Jan 25832 x 846 km, 101.7 min, 98°.7
06:16USA 109 (DMSP 5D-2 F-13)235331995-015A2025 Jan 25831 x 841 km, 101.6 min, 98°.8
08:39USA 131 (DMSP 5D-2 F-14)247531997-012A2025 Jan 25830 x 844 km, 101.7 min, 98°.8
06:09USA 191 (DMSP 5D-3 F-17)295222006-050A2025 Jan 25835 x 851 km, 101.8 min, 98°.7
03:56USA 210 (DMSP 5D-3 F-18)359512009-057A2025 Jan 25837 x 851 km, 101.8 min, 98°.8
05:35USA 249 (DMSP 5D-3 F-19)396302014-015A2025 Jan 25836 x 850 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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