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NAVSTAR 66 (USA 232)
GPS Navigation Satellite (Block IIF) · US Space Force
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Navstar 66 (USA 232), launched in 2011, is a Block IIF GPS satellite whose entire existence traces back, indirectly, to a tragedy over the Sea of Japan. In 1983, Soviet fighters shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 after it strayed into restricted airspace, killing 269 people — a disaster investigators later attributed to a simple navigation error the crew never caught. Within days, President Reagan announced that GPS, then a purely military system still years from completion, would be made available for civilian use once operational, specifically so no airliner would ever again go fatally off course for lack of precise positioning. Every GPS satellite since, including this one, carries that decision forward.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Medium Earth Orbita high vantage point, ideal for navigation
- Altitude
- 12,313–12,777 mi (19,816–20,563 km)
- Inclination
- 56.5°
- One orbit
- 12.0 hours2.0 orbits a day
- NORAD ID
- 37753
- Int’l designator
- 2011-036A
- Launched
- 2011
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 22 Sep 2026.
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