Track Iridium — 66 satellites covering every inch of Earth
Iridium is the satellite-phone constellation: 66 active satellites in near-polar orbits, cross-linked so a call can hop between them without touching the ground. It's the only network that covers the entire planet, poles included. Cosmik shows the whole lattice moving live in 3D.
Open the live map → Search “Iridium” in Cosmik.
Iridium satellites at a glance
- Active satellites: 66 (plus spares), in 6 polar planes
- Altitude: ~780 km
- Orbital period: ~100 minutes
- Inclination: 86.4° — near-polar
- Generation: Iridium NEXT, fully deployed January 2019
Can you see Iridium satellites with the naked eye?
The current satellites are visible only as faint twilight movers. The legendary 'Iridium flares' — brilliant seconds-long flashes from the first generation's door-sized antennas — largely ended when those satellites were deorbited by 2019; the NEXT design doesn't flare predictably.
Frequently asked questions
Do Iridium flares still happen?
Essentially no. The original satellites whose flat antennas produced brilliant predictable flares were deorbited by 2019. Today's Iridium NEXT satellites can glint occasionally, but not in the predictable, spectacular way the originals did.
Why does Iridium have 66 satellites?
Six near-polar orbital planes of eleven satellites each give continuous overlapping coverage of the whole globe — the geometry needed so a handset anywhere on Earth, including the poles, always sees at least one satellite.
Related satellites
- Starlink Constellation — How Many Satellites Are There?
- Hubble Space Telescope — orbit, facts & visible passes
- Tiangong tracker — see China's space station live
- GPS Satellite Tracker — the constellation live in 3D
- NOAA & GOES weather satellite tracker — live in 3D
- HADES-SA (SO-127) — tiny ham-radio satellite tracker
Track more satellites
The ISS · Starlink · Hubble Space Telescope · Tiangong space station · GPS satellites · NOAA weather satellites · HADES-SA (SO-127) · all 20,000+ objects — see how many satellites are in orbit, track Starlink, or check upcoming rocket launches.
