Home › Other Active Satellites › ION SCV-008
ION SCV-008 — Live Satellite Tracking (NORAD 55051)
Track ION SCV-008 (NORAD catalog number 55051) 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 AU of 2023's 1st orbital launch (COSPAR designation 2023-001AU). It went up together with 25 other satellites from that launch still in the active catalog. As of this element set it had completed roughly 20,381 revolutions of Earth.
Moving at about 7.64 km/s, ION SCV-008 flies in low Earth orbit at an altitude of roughly 474 × 496 km, completing one revolution every 94.2 minutes — about 15.3 trips around Earth per day. The orbit is essentially circular (eccentricity 0.0016). Its 97.6° retrograde, near-polar inclination is characteristic of a Sun-synchronous orbit — the type Earth-imaging and weather satellites use to revisit each spot at the same local solar time. Its orbital plane crosses the equator northbound at right ascension 347.6°. Earth's equatorial bulge precesses that plane eastward about 1.02° per day, matching the Sun's apparent motion — which is what holds its lighting constant.
Orbital elements
| Orbit regime | low Earth orbit (LEO) |
|---|---|
| Perigee × apogee altitude | ~474 km × 496 km |
| Inclination | 97.57° |
| Orbital period | 94.2 min (15.29 rev/day) |
| Eccentricity | 0.00161 |
| Element set epoch | 2026-09-06 |
| COSPAR designation | 2023-001AU |
| NORAD catalog number | 55051 |
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
ION SCV-008 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 ION SCV-008 from the ground?
Sometimes. Like most low-Earth-orbit spacecraft, ION SCV-008 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 ION SCV-008 in the Other Active Satellites group — usually craft from the same or adjacent launches:
- EOSSAT-1 (NORAD 55053)
- NUSAT-35 (WILLIAMINA) (NORAD 55048)
- SKYKRAFT-1A (NORAD 55054)
- NUSAT-33 (ALBANIA-2) (NORAD 55047)
- LYNK TOWER 3 (NORAD 55046)
- VIGORIDE-5 (NORAD 55056)
Browse the Other Active Satellites directory or the full satellite directory · What is a TLE? · WatchSat live globe