Science
TERRA
Earth Observation · NASA
Right now
LiveIt moves every second. See exactly where it is — worked out from its orbit, on your own device — on the live 3D globe.
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NASA's flagship Earth observer — a five-instrument spacecraft scanning the entire planet every 1-2 days since 2000. It tracks deforestation, ice sheet changes, wildfire smoke, and ocean temperatures simultaneously. Its MODIS instrument established the global baseline for measuring Earth's temperature from space, making it one of the most important climate science tools ever built.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Low Earth Orbitcan appear as a fast-moving star at dawn or dusk
- Altitude
- 429–432 mi (691–696 km)
- Inclination
- 97.9°
- One orbit
- 98.5 minutes14.6 orbits a day
- NORAD ID
- 25994
- Int’l designator
- 1999-068A
- Launched
- 1999
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 8 Nov 2026.