OV2-3

OV2-3 is an active satellite operated by United States, launched on 1965-12-21 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. After more than 61 years in orbit, it is one of the longest-surviving objects in the space catalogue. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 249 km and 14,761 km with an inclination of 26.6°. It travels at approximately 19,295 km/h (5.36 km/s), completing one full orbit every 4 hours 31 minutes — that’s roughly 5.31 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.5229 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Orbital Radar tracks OV2-3 in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

OV2-3 operates in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), the region between LEO and GEO spanning roughly 2,000 to 35,786 km altitude. MEO is home to navigation constellations (GPS at ~20,200 km, Galileo at ~23,222 km, GLONASS at ~19,130 km) and some communications systems. The higher altitude gives each satellite a much larger ground footprint than LEO, meaning fewer satellites are needed for global coverage, but signal latency is higher and radiation exposure — particularly from the Van Allen belts — is a significant design challenge.