IRIDIUM 33
Live Position
Ground Track · Last 90 Minutes
Upcoming Passes · Over Your Location
About This Satellite
Iridium 33 was a communications satellite in the first-generation Iridium constellation. In February 2009 it collided with the defunct Russian satellite Kosmos 2251, creating one of the largest orbital debris clouds ever cataloged and sharpening worldwide attention on space debris.
Source: Wikipedia — Iridium 33 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
IRIDIUM 33 is a cataloged satellite tracked under NORAD ID 24946 with international designator 97051C. According to the GCAT master catalog, it was built by MOTO/LMMS, on the LM700 platform, with a launch mass of about 662 kg, with a shape described as Box + 2 Pan. According to the TLE snapshot used when this page was generated (2026-08-18), its LEO orbit had an apogee of about 789 km and a perigee near 775 km, with an inclination of 86.39° and a period of roughly 100.3 minutes; at apogee its speed was about 7.46 km/s. Positions on this page are near-real-time SGP4 predictions propagated from the latest two-line element (TLE) data.
In the TLE snapshot used to generate this page, IRIDIUM 33's apogee was 789 km, where its speed was about 7.46 km/s, completing about 14.4 orbits of Earth per day. Track it live on the map above or in the JOT orbital map.