EQUATOR S

EQUATOR S is an active satellite operated by Germany, launched on 1997-12-02 from Guiana Space Centre, Kourou. With over 29 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) at altitudes between 654 km and 66,958 km with an inclination of 5.2°. It travels at approximately 11,339 km/h (3.15 km/s), completing one full orbit every 22 hours 16 minutes — that’s roughly 1.08 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.8251 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. It is part of the Geo Protected Plus constellation group. Orbital Radar tracks EQUATOR S in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

EQUATOR S 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 (654 km) and apogee (66,958 km) for this object illustrates the characteristic elliptical shape.