Home › Other Active Satellites › CELESTIS-17 & SHERPA-FX1
CELESTIS-17 & SHERPA-FX1 — Live Satellite Tracking (NORAD 47486)
Track CELESTIS-17 & SHERPA-FX1 (NORAD catalog number 47486) live on the WatchSat interactive 3D globe above. Its position is propagated in real time from the latest CelesTrak two-line element set using the SGP4/SDP4 orbital model — the same math professional trackers run. It is object CB of 2021's 6th orbital launch (COSPAR designation 2021-006CB). It went up together with 6 other satellites from that launch still in the active catalog. As of this element set it had completed roughly 31,320 revolutions of Earth.
Moving at about 7.63 km/s, CELESTIS-17 & SHERPA-FX1 flies in low Earth orbit at an altitude of roughly 470 × 478 km, completing one revolution every 93.9 minutes — about 15.3 trips around Earth per day. The orbit is essentially circular (eccentricity 0.0005). Its 97.2° retrograde, near-polar inclination is characteristic of a Sun-synchronous orbit — the type Earth-imaging and weather satellites use to revisit each spot at the same local solar time. Its orbital plane crosses the equator northbound at right ascension 297.9°. Earth's equatorial bulge precesses that plane eastward about 0.98° per day, matching the Sun's apparent motion — which is what holds its lighting constant.
Orbital elements
| Orbit regime | low Earth orbit (LEO) |
|---|---|
| Perigee × apogee altitude | ~470 km × 478 km |
| Inclination | 97.22° |
| Orbital period | 93.9 min (15.33 rev/day) |
| Eccentricity | 0.00051 |
| Element set epoch | 2026-09-15 |
| COSPAR designation | 2021-006CB |
| NORAD catalog number | 47486 |
This page's orbital elements come from the CelesTrak catalog of 2026-09-17. The live 3D view above fetches its own current CelesTrak data when the page opens, through an edge cache that refreshes roughly every 30 minutes.
About the Other Active Satellites group
CELESTIS-17 & SHERPA-FX1 is one of 4,464 active satellites in WatchSat's general catalog — the broad population of Earth-observation, communications, science, amateur-radio and technology spacecraft outside the giant broadband constellations. Browse all other active satellites live in 3D.
Can you see CELESTIS-17 & SHERPA-FX1 from the ground?
Sometimes. Like most low-Earth-orbit spacecraft, CELESTIS-17 & SHERPA-FX1 is visible only around dawn and dusk, when your sky is dark but the satellite is still sunlit — and whether you can spot it depends on its size and reflectivity. See pass predictions for your location are available on this page once you select the satellite and share your position for when it is above your horizon and sunlit.
Related satellites
Nearest catalog neighbors of CELESTIS-17 & SHERPA-FX1 in the Other Active Satellites group — usually craft from the same or adjacent launches:
- HAWK-2C (NORAD 47502)
- ION SCV-002 (NORAD 47504)
- HAWK-2A (NORAD 47505)
- HAWK-2B (NORAD 47508)
- GHGSAT-C2 (NORAD 47509)
- CUBEL (NORAD 47448)
Browse the Other Active Satellites directory or the full satellite directory.
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