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AEROCUBE 18B — Live Satellite Tracking (NORAD 63222)
Track AEROCUBE 18B (NORAD catalog number 63222) 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 N of 2025's 52nd orbital launch (COSPAR designation 2025-052N). It went up together with 57 other satellites from that launch still in the active catalog. As of this element set it had completed roughly 8,238 revolutions of Earth.
Moving at about 7.62 km/s, AEROCUBE 18B flies in low Earth orbit at an altitude of roughly 495 × 500 km, completing one revolution every 94.4 minutes — about 15.3 trips around Earth per day. The orbit is essentially circular (eccentricity 0.0004). Its 97.4° 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 142.5°. Earth's equatorial bulge precesses that plane eastward about 0.99° 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 | ~495 km × 500 km |
| Inclination | 97.38° |
| Orbital period | 94.4 min (15.25 rev/day) |
| Eccentricity | 0.00041 |
| Element set epoch | 2026-09-07 |
| COSPAR designation | 2025-052N |
| NORAD catalog number | 63222 |
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 18B 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 18B from the ground?
Sometimes. Like most low-Earth-orbit spacecraft, AEROCUBE 18B 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 18B in the Other Active Satellites group — usually craft from the same or adjacent launches:
- TRANSPORTER-13 OBJECT M (NORAD 63221)
- DROID.002 (NORAD 63223)
- AEROCUBE 18A (NORAD 63220)
- TEVEL2-2 (NORAD 63219)
- TOMORROW-S6 (NORAD 63225)
- TEVEL2-3 (NORAD 63218)
Browse the Other Active Satellites directory or the full satellite directory · What is a TLE? · WatchSat live globe