ISO

ISO is an active satellite operated by ESA (European Space Agency), launched on 1995-11-17 from Guiana Space Centre, Kourou. With over 31 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) at altitudes between 439 km and 70,069 km with an inclination of 2.4°. It travels at approximately 11,140 km/h (3.09 km/s), completing one full orbit every 23 hours 29 minutes — that’s roughly 1.02 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.8364 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. It is part of the Geo Protected Plus constellation group. At geostationary altitude, there is no meaningful atmospheric drag — this object will remain in orbit indefinitely unless actively deorbited. Orbital Radar tracks ISO in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

ISO follows a Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO), which sweeps between a low-altitude perigee and a very high apogee. HEO satellites spend most of their orbital period near apogee, moving slowly at high altitude — effectively loitering over a region of interest. This makes HEO ideal for high-latitude communications (Molniya and Tundra orbits), early-warning missile detection (SBIRS), and space science missions that need to sample different regions of the magnetosphere. The large difference between perigee (439 km) and apogee (70,069 km) for this object illustrates the characteristic elliptical shape.