TDRS 8 is catalogued in this registry as a payload, held in the frame of Earth, from GCAT — artificial space objects.
Registry id GCAT_S26388 ·
source layer gcat ·
provenance PROCESSED — derived deterministically from source catalogues (unit, frame and epoch conversions, cross-source reconciliation) — no value invented
Exists from 2000-06-30 12:56:00 UTC (JD 2451726.0389) — no end date is recorded.
Open TDRS 8 in the live scene → The scene composes a position for any date and is where a figure becomes a picture. It downloads the whole catalogue first: measured against the built product, an object outside the core resolves after about 16 s over a local network and about 147 s over a 4 Mbit link, having transferred roughly 70 MB. If you cannot wait that long, this page is the answer.
The registry keeps every source's value rather than choosing one and discarding the rest. If you quote a figure below, quoting it alone would hide a real disagreement between catalogues.
orbital.a: the registry shows one value and keeps 1 other — 4.2155×10^7 (GCAT satcat (orbit as of ODate))orbital.e: the registry shows one value and keeps 1 other — 0.0027280275174949593 (GCAT satcat (orbit as of ODate))| Quantity | Value | Uncertainty | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Radius | 10.5 m | no published uncertainty in this registry | GCAT — artificial space objects |
| Mass | 3180 kg | no published uncertainty in this registry | GCAT — artificial space objects |
Each row carries its own uncertainty and its own source. Where a row says no uncertainty is published, that is what the catalogue says — it is not a claim that the value is exact.
These are the sourced elements. This page does not print a position: a position is a function of time, and a single one dated to the bake would be stale the moment it was read. The registry composes a position for any date, past or future, from these elements — open the scene below and set the clock.
| Quantity | Value | Uncertainty | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semi-major axis | 4.2163813×10^7 m (42163.813 km) | no published uncertainty in this registry | GCAT — artificial space objects ⚖ 1 source disagree — 4.2155×10^7 m (GCAT satcat (orbit as of ODate)) |
| Eccentricity | 0.0001486 | no published uncertainty in this registry | GCAT — artificial space objects ⚖ 1 source disagree — 0.0027280275174949593 (GCAT satcat (orbit as of ODate)) |
| Inclination | 0.242059 rad (13.869°) | no published uncertainty in this registry | GCAT — artificial space objects |
| Longitude of ascending node | 2.653147 rad (152.0141°) | no published uncertainty in this registry | GCAT — artificial space objects |
| Argument of periapsis | 0.567927 rad (32.5398°) | no published uncertainty in this registry | GCAT — artificial space objects |
| Mean anomaly at epoch | 0.575473 rad (32.9722°) | no published uncertainty in this registry | GCAT — artificial space objects |
Elements are expressed in the frame of
EARTH at epoch
2026-10-05 08:00:24 UTC (JD 2461318.83361844). Gravitational parameter of the primary:
3.9861389×10^14 m³/s². Semi-major axis in astronomical units uses the
IAU 2012 definition (1 au = 1.495978707×10^11 m exactly).
| Kind | payload |
|---|---|
| Origin | artificial (made by humans) |
| Operating nation | USA |
| Operator class | governmental |
| Purpose | Communications |
| User class | Government |
| Launch site code | CC |
| Launch vehicle | Atlas IIA |
| Launch outcome | success |
| UN registration | registered with the United Nations — USA · ST/SG/SER.E/379 |
| Separated from | GCAT_S26389 on 2000-06-30 13:25:59 UTC (JD 2451726.059722222) |
| 3-D model | carries a published mesh |
S26388 #26388 2000-034A · GSFC/US · mfr HSES · bus HS-601 · op GEO/I · dry 1600 kg · category COM · class C · program TDRS · elements MEASURED (Celestrak GP); GCAT a/e as of ODate kept as alternate [GCAT]
Reproduced as the source wrote it. Author-year citations link to their DOI where one is registered.
These are absences in the catalogues aggregated here, not measurements of zero, and not statements that the quantity is unknown to science:
| Database | GCAT — artificial space objects |
|---|---|
| Authority | GCAT — General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects (J. McDowell) |
| Address | https://planet4589.org/space/gcat/tsv |
| Licence | CC-BY 4.0 — https://planet4589.org/space/gcat/ |
| How it entered | RAW snapshot via scripts/ingest-gcat.ts |
| Snapshot | 2026-10-22 |
| Coverage | 99,132 objects; 2674 multisegment; 349 landed; debris archived, off by default; 1,801 failed-to-orbit objects placed at their launch sites (existence-windowed to their fall); uncatalogued (CSO/analyst) objects included; 38 marked-erroneous (ERR) phantom entries skipped; the extended US catalogue (SATCAT ≥ 100000) read as satcat; ISON/Vimpel optical objects absent from the US catalogue included (vimcat, keyed by V-JCAT; 1,035 rows naming a US-catalogue object folded onto it); 24,166 suborbital payloads (rcat, apogee ≥ 80 km) placed at their launch sites, existence-windowed launch → fall; their 61,509 stages and components archived, not baked; 23,018 carry a MEASURED Ω/ω/M₀ from a Celestrak GP join, the rest a deterministic placeholder spread; launch log joined by Launch_Tag → site:/lv:/outcome: facets on 80,406 objects (73,418 with minute-precise launch time); 103 deep-space trajectories refined by JPL Horizons navigation arcs (piecewise osculating elements, heliocentric cruise spans only) |
This database remains the property of its owners and is reused under its own licence. If you quote a value from this page, name that database alongside SolarSystemRegistry.org.