Science
COSMO-SKYMED 3
SAR Earth Observation · ASI / Italian Ministry of Defence
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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The third COSMO-SkyMed satellite brought the constellation to 12-hour Mediterranean revisit capability — fast enough to track ship movements in near real-time. The constellation was used in the 2012 Costa Concordia shipwreck response, providing SAR imagery of the capsized vessel to guide the unprecedented salvage operation.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Low Earth Orbitcan appear as a fast-moving star at dawn or dusk
- Altitude
- 333–347 mi (536–559 km)
- Inclination
- 97.8°
- One orbit
- 95.4 minutes15.1 orbits a day
- NORAD ID
- 33412
- Int’l designator
- 2008-054A
- Launched
- 2008
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 7 Nov 2026.
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