Home › Other Active Satellites › AEROCUBE 5C
AEROCUBE 5C — Live Satellite Tracking (NORAD 40965)
Track AEROCUBE 5C (NORAD catalog number 40965) live on the WatchSat interactive 3D globe above. Its position is propagated in real time from the latest CelesTrak two-line element set using the SGP4/SDP4 orbital model — the same math professional trackers run. It is object B of 2015's 58th orbital launch (COSPAR designation 2015-058B). It went up together with 11 other satellites from that launch still in the active catalog. As of this element set it had completed roughly 37,781 revolutions of Earth.
Moving at about 7.67 km/s, AEROCUBE 5C flies in low Earth orbit at an altitude of roughly 504 × 695 km, completing one revolution every 96.5 minutes — about 14.9 trips around Earth per day. The orbit is essentially circular (eccentricity 0.0137). Inclined 64.8° to the equator, it overflies every latitude up to about 65° north and south. Its orbital plane crosses the equator northbound at right ascension 8.9°. Earth's equatorial bulge drifts that plane westward about 3.11° per day.
Orbital elements
| Orbit regime | low Earth orbit (LEO) |
|---|---|
| Perigee × apogee altitude | ~504 km × 695 km |
| Inclination | 64.77° |
| Orbital period | 96.5 min (14.92 rev/day) |
| Eccentricity | 0.01369 |
| Element set epoch | 2026-09-06 |
| COSPAR designation | 2015-058B |
| NORAD catalog number | 40965 |
This page's orbital elements come from the CelesTrak catalog of 2026-09-08. The live 3D view above fetches its own current CelesTrak data when the page opens, through an edge cache that refreshes roughly every 30 minutes.
About the Other Active Satellites group
AEROCUBE 5C is one of 4,471 active satellites in WatchSat's general catalog — the broad population of Earth-observation, communications, science, amateur-radio and technology spacecraft outside the giant broadband constellations. Browse all other active satellites live in 3D.
Can you see AEROCUBE 5C from the ground?
Sometimes. Like most low-Earth-orbit spacecraft, AEROCUBE 5C is visible only around dawn and dusk, when your sky is dark but the satellite is still sunlit — and whether you can spot it depends on its size and reflectivity. See pass predictions for your location for when it is above your horizon and sunlit.
Related satellites
Nearest catalog neighbors of AEROCUBE 5C in the Other Active Satellites group — usually craft from the same or adjacent launches:
- AEROCUBE 7 (NORAD 40966)
- FOX-1A (AO-85) (NORAD 40967)
- SINOD-D 1 (NORAD 40968)
- JILIN-1 (NORAD 40961)
- LINGQIAO VIDEO B (NORAD 40960)
- SNAP-3 ALICE (NORAD 40970)
Browse the Other Active Satellites directory or the full satellite directory · What is a TLE? · WatchSat live globe