VIKING

VIKING is an active satellite operated by Sweden, launched on 1986-02-22 from Guiana Space Centre, Kourou. With over 40 years in orbit, it has far exceeded many satellites’ design lifetimes. It orbits in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) at altitudes between 815 km and 13,523 km with an inclination of 98.8°. It travels at approximately 19,533 km/h (5.43 km/s), completing one full orbit every 4 hours 22 minutes — that’s roughly 5.51 orbits per day. Its orbital eccentricity of 0.4693 gives it a noticeably elliptical path, with significant altitude variation between perigee and apogee. Orbital Radar tracks VIKING in real time using the latest two-line element set (TLE) data, providing live position, altitude, speed and orbital path updated continuously.

VIKING orbits at an average altitude of 7,169 km in Medium Earth Orbit, the region between LEO and GEO (2,000–35,786 km). MEO’s higher altitude gives each satellite a much larger ground footprint than LEO, meaning fewer spacecraft are needed for global coverage — but signal latency is higher and radiation from the Van Allen belts is a significant design constraint. Within ±50 km of VIKING’s average altitude, there are currently 2 active payloads and 7 tracked debris or rocket body fragments. This is a relatively sparse altitude band, containing less than 1% of all active satellites. With an inclination of 98.8°, VIKING passes over latitudes between 98.8°N and 98.8°S, providing near-global coverage including the polar regions. Polar and near-polar orbits are used for reconnaissance, weather monitoring and Earth-observation missions that need to image every part of the planet. Sweden operates approximately 15 active satellites in total.