Geostationary
TERRESTAR-1
Mobile Satellite Phone (Defunct) · TerreStar / USA (Bankrupt)
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.
- Over
- —
- Altitude
- —
- Speed
- —
An ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to provide direct-to-smartphone mobile satellite service in North America. TerreStar-1 was one of the largest commercial GEO satellites ever built at launch — nearly 7 tons — designed to use an enormous 18-meter antenna to communicate directly with LTE smartphones without special satellite hardware. The company went bankrupt before the service launched, but the technical concept TerreStar proved has since been revived by Starlink, AST SpaceMobile, and Lynk in LEO approaches.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Geostationaryappears to hang motionless over one spot on the equator
- Altitude
- 22,236–22,248 mi (35,786–35,804 km)
- Inclination
- 5.2°
- One orbit
- 23.9 hoursabout one orbit a day
- NORAD ID
- 35496
- Int’l designator
- 2009-035A
- Launched
- 2009
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 22 Sep 2026.