IMAGE

IMAGE is an active satellite operated by United States, launched on 2000-03-25 from Vandenberg SFB, California. With over 26 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) at altitudes between 1,059 km and 45,808 km with an inclination of 94.2°. It travels at approximately 13,165 km/h (3.66 km/s), completing one full orbit every 14 hours 14 minutes — that’s roughly 1.69 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.7507 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 IMAGE in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

IMAGE 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 (1,059 km) and apogee (45,808 km) for this object illustrates the characteristic elliptical shape.