Skip to content
SatelliteIndex

Satellite · NORAD 43435 · COSPAR 2018-038A

TESS

ActivePayloadHEOScience derived

Altitude now

337,707.8km

SGP4 propagation

Velocity

0.84km/s

Inclination

56.23°

Period

14.2 d

20,504.0 min

Perigee

119,094km

Apogee

364,455km

orbit freshOrbit updated 9 h ago · element epoch 21 Sept 2026 14:50 UTC (-227.3 h old)· Metadata updated 9 h ago

Live position

Ground track & current position

Propagated client-side every 5 s from the latest element set (SGP4). Accuracy degrades with element age.

Ground track of TESSTESS
LIVE · SGP4

Loading ground track…

Latitude
35.287° S
Longitude
164.266° W
Altitude
337707.8 km
Velocity
0.843 km/s
  • past 45 min
  • next 90 min
  • first fix from server render · element epoch 21 Sept 2026 14:50 UTC

Mission

Mission & classification

Mission type derived
Science
Object type
Payload
SATCAT ops status
Operational [+]
Radar cross-section

CelesTrak groups

Aliases

  • TESSCelestrak

Ownership

Operator & country

Operator
SATCAT owner code
US · United States

Launch

Launch

Launch page
Launch date
18 Apr 2018
COSPAR launch id
2018-038

Objects from the same launch · 1

Change log

History

FieldChangeSourceDate
Country CodeUSCelestrak Satcat11 Sept 2026 18:53 UTC
Owner CodeUSCelestrak Satcat11 Sept 2026 18:53 UTC
Orbit ClassHEOCelestrak11 Sept 2026 18:53 UTC

Regulatory

UN registration

UN Register of Objects Launched into Outer Space (UNOOSA) — connector planned, not yet ingested; registration unavailable

Transparency

Sources & provenance

All sources
  • CelesTrakcommunity

    Orbital data courtesy of CelesTrak (Dr. T.S. Kelso).

    last sync 26 min ago

  • CelesTrak SATCATcommunity

    Satellite catalog data courtesy of CelesTrak.

    last sync 9 h ago

Field provenance

FieldSourceObservedConfidence
Canonical NameCelesTrak SATCAT11 Sept 2026 18:53 UTC100%
Decay DateCelesTrak SATCAT11 Sept 2026 18:53 UTC100%
Launch DateCelesTrak SATCAT11 Sept 2026 18:53 UTC100%
Object TypeCelesTrak SATCAT11 Sept 2026 18:53 UTC100%
Orbital ElementsCelesTrak12 Sept 2026 03:03 UTC100%
Owner CodeCelesTrak SATCAT11 Sept 2026 18:53 UTC100%
StatusCelesTrak SATCAT11 Sept 2026 18:53 UTC100%

Quality flags

  • UNKNOWN_OPERATORactive payload without resolved operator11 Sept 2026

Timeline

Events

All events

No events detected for this object yet. Launches, decays and orbit changes are generated by the derived-analytics connector.

Reference

Identifiers

NORAD catalogue number
43435
COSPAR / international designator
2018-038A
SatelliteIndex id
sat_01M28X2SWZKGKWBJN3JDYP0RWA
Canonical slug
tess-43435

Orbit class, mission type and constellation membership are derived by SatelliteIndex (Science) — see the methodology. Positions are propagated estimates, not tracking measurements; never use them for conjunction assessment.

TESS — Live Orbit, NORAD 43435 | SatelliteIndex