Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
Country: United States of America
Live Position
Ground Track · Last 90 Minutes
Upcoming Passes · Over Your Location
About This Satellite
Hubble is a space observatory launched aboard Discovery in 1990. Its 2.4-metre primary mirror collects ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light. Operating above most of the atmosphere avoids the image distortion that affects telescopes on the ground.
Mission context
Hubble and the International Space Station are both in low Earth orbit, but they serve very different purposes. Hubble points its instruments at astronomical targets; the position marker here describes the observatory, not the location of the star or galaxy it is observing.
What to notice in this record
Its altitude changes over time, so this record uses a dated element set instead of asserting a permanent 540 km orbit. The inclination constrains the latitude of the ground track. It does not limit the telescope to photographing only that strip of the sky.
Mission reference: NASA: About Hubble. Editorial review: .
Reading this orbital snapshot
Based on TLE epoch: 2026-09-05. Estimated altitude ranges from 470 km at perigee to 472 km at apogee, a difference of 2 km. The orbital period is about 94.0 minutes. Eccentricity 0.00015 indicates a nearly circular path. In a two-body approximation, perigee speed is 1.00 times apogee speed. These are mean-element estimates, not instantaneous measurements. Distance per orbit uses an ellipse approximation.
Saved build snapshot. If a valid TLE is retrieved, this explanation and the orbit panel update together. Otherwise this dated snapshot is retained.
Ground track is not sensor coverage
An inclination of 28.47 degrees implies approximate geocentric ground-track limits of 28.5 degrees north and south. This is a prograde orbit, moving in the same general direction as Earth rotation. The plotted line marks the point beneath the object. It does not represent camera coverage, radio reception, or a guaranteed visible pass.
Accuracy and missing information
The introductory record describes the build snapshot. The orbital snapshot explanation and orbit panel share any successfully retrieved TLE; check the displayed epoch. Reentered objects retain historical data only. Mission history is not rewritten by TLE updates. TLE/SGP4 positions are predictions and can change after maneuvers or updated observations. The 14-day stale-data cutoff is a display safeguard, not an accuracy guarantee. Local passes are geometric predictions, not a visibility forecast. No verified operator or mission status means unknown, not active. Do not use this catalog for collision avoidance or operational flight decisions.
Catalog sources: CelesTrak SATCAT: NORAD 20580 · GCAT: S20580 (source update 2026 Sep 4 2345:57). Supplementary metadata: SatNOGS DB, retrieved 2026-09-05T12:57:25.375Z. Page assembled 2026-09-15. GCAT phase codes describe trajectory phases, not mission health.
Learn more: TLE data · Perigee and apogee · Ground tracks · JOT (Jewawud Live Orbital Map)