Navigation satellites

Below are checklists of Navigation satellites, including launch dates and images of the satellites. If readers know of additional information or images, please contact the authors using the e-mail addresses at the bottom of this page.

Satellite series covered:

USA Transit-series satellites:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
Transit-1A [failed]	1959-09-17	Transit-1B	Transit	Transit
Transit-1B	1960-04-13
Transit-2A	1960-06-22	Transit-2A Transit-2A (+ SolRad-1)
Transit-2B	Never launched
Transit-3A [failed]	1960-11-30	Transit-3B Transit-3B (+ LOFTI-1)
Transit-3B [partial failure]	1961-02-21
Transit-4A	1961-06-29	Transit-4A (+ Injun-1 + SolRad-3) Transit-4A (+ Injun-1 + SolRad-3)
Transit-4B	1961-11-15	Transit-4B Transit-4B + TRAAC Transit-4B + TRAAC (newspaper article)
TRAAC	1961-11-15
Transit-5A-1	1962-12-19	Transit-5A-1
Transit-5A-2 [failed]	1963-04-05
Transit-5A-3	1963-06-16
Transit-5BN-1	1963-09-28	Transit-5BN
Transit-5BN-2	1963-12-05
Transit-5BN-3 [failed]	1964-04-21
Transit-5C-1	1964-06-03	Transit-5C-1
Transit-5C-2	Never launched
Transit-5E-1	1963-09-28	Transit-5E-1
Transit-5E-2	1964-04-21	Transit-5E-2
Transit-5E-3	1963-12-05	Transit-5E-3
Transit-5E-4	Never launched
Transit-5E-5	1964-12-13	Transit-5E-5
Transit-O3	1965-03-11	Transit-O (Oscar)1 Transit-O (Oscar)1
Transit-O4	1965-06-24
Transit-O6	1965-12-22
Transit-O7	1966-01-28
Transit-O12	1967-04-14
Transit-O13	1967-05-18
Transit-O14	1967-09-25
Transit-O17 (now Polar BEAR)	1986-11-14
Transit-O18	1968-03-02
Transit-O19	1970-08-27
Transit-O20	1973-10-30
Transit-O25	1988-08-25
Transit-O31	1988-08-25
Triad-1 / TIP-1	1972-09-02	TIP-1 TIP-1
Triad-2 / TIP-2	1975-10-11	TIP-2/3 type
Triad-3 / TIP-3	1976-09-01
Transit-O11 / Transat	1977-10-27	Transat
Transit-Nova-1	1981-05-25	Transit-Nova Transit-Nova
Transit-Nova-2	1988-06-16
Transit-Nova-3	1984-10-11

¹These are US Navy Transit-Oscar navigational satellites, not to be confused with the amateur-radio OSCAR series.

US Army, Navy, NASA, and Air Force (ANNA) satellites:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
ANNA-1 (ANNA-1A) [failed]	1962-05-10		ANNA	ANNA
ANNA-2 (ANNA-1B)	1962-10-31	ANNA-2

USA SEquential COllation of Range (SECOR) / Electronic and Geodetic Ranging Satellite (EGRS) series:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
SECOR-(1) / EGRS-(1) [failed]	1962-01-24	SECOR-(1) SECOR-(1)	SECOR / EGRS	SECOR / EGRS
SECOR-1 / EGRS-1	1964-01-11	SECOR-1
SECOR-2 / EGRS-2	1965-03-11
SECOR-3 / EGRS-3	1965-03-09
SECOR-4 / EGRS-4	1965-04-03
SECOR-5 / EGRS-5	1965-08-10	SECOR-5 (+ SEV)
SECOR-6 / EGRS-6	1966-06-09	SECOR-1
SECOR-7 / EGRS-7	1966-08-19
SECOR-8 / EGRS-8	1966-10-05
SECOR-9 / EGRS-9	1967-06-29
SECOR-10 / EGRS-10 [failed]	1968-05-18
SECOR-11 / EGRS-11 [failed]	1968-08-16
SECOR-12 / EGRS-12 [failed]
SECOR-13 / EGRS-13	1969-04-14

Russian Nadezhda-series satellites:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
Nadezhda #1 / Kosmos-1383 / COSPAS-1	1982-06-29	Kosmos-1383	Nadezhda	Nadezhda
Nadezhda #2 / Kosmos-1447 / COSPAS-2	1983-03-24
Nadezhda #3 / Kosmos-1574 / COSPAS-3	1984-06-21
Nadezhda-1 / Nadezhda #4 / COSPAS-4	1989-07-04	Nadezhda
Nadezhda-2 / Nadezhda #5 / COSPAS-5	1990-02-27
Nadezhda-3 / Nadezhda #6 / COSPAS-6	1991-03-12
Nadezhda-4 / Nadezhda #7 / COSPAS-7	1994-07-14
Nadezhda-5 / Nadezhda #8 / COSPAS-8	1998-12-10
Nadezhda-6 / Nadezhda #9 / COSPAS-9	2000-06-28
Nadezhda-7 / Nadezhda-M #1 / COSPAS-10	2002-09-26

Russian Sterkh-series satellites:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
Sterkh-1 / COSPAS-11	2009-07-21	Sterkh-1	Sterkh	Sterkh
Sterkh-2 / COSPAS-12	2009-09-17
Sterkh-3 / COSPAS-13	Canceled
Sterkh-4 / COSPAS-14	Canceled

USA TIMe navigATION (Timation) series:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
Timation-1	1967-05-31	Timation-1	Timation	Timation
Timation-2	1969-09-30

USA Navigation Technology Satellite (NTS) / Timation series:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
NTS-1 / Timation-3	1974-07-13	NTS-1	NTS	NTS
NTS-2 / formerly Timation-4	1977-06-23	NTS-2
NTS-3 / USSF-106	2025-08-13	NTS-3

(Selected) US Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation satellites:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
GPS-1 / NAVSTAR-1 (series)	1978-02-22 — 1985-10-09	NAVSTAR NAVSTAR-5 (sticker) NAVSTAR-6 (sticker)	GPS / NAVSTAR	GPS / NAVSTAR
GPS-2 / NAVSTAR-2 (series)	1989-02-14 — 1990-10-01	NAVSTAR-2
GPS-2A / NAVSTAR-2A (series)	1990-11-26 — 1997-11-06	NAVSTAR-2A
GPS-2R / NAVSTAR-2R (series)	1997-01-16 — 2004-11-06	NAVSTAR-2R
GPS-2RM / NAVSTAR-2RM (series)	2005-09-26 — 2009-08-17	NAVSTAR-2RM
GPS-2F / NAVSTAR-2F (series)	2010-05-28 — 2016-02-05	NAVSTAR-2F
GPS-3 / NAVSTAR-3 (series)	2018-12-23 →	NAVSTAR-3A

(Selected) Russian GLObalnaya NAvigationnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (GLONASS) / Uragan constellation satellites:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
GLONASS / Uragan / Kosmos (series)	1982-10-12 — 2005-12-25	GLONASS	GLONASS / Uragan	GLONASS / Uragan
GLONASS-M / Uragan-M / Kosmos (series)	2001-12-01 →	GLONASS-M
GLONASS-K / Uragan-K / Kosmos (series)	2011-02-26 →	GLONASS-K

(Selected) ESA Galileo constellation satellites:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
GIOVE-A / GSTB-A	2005-12-28	GIOVE-A GIOVE-A	Galileo (ESA)	Galileo (ESA)
GIOVE-B / GSTB-B	2008-04-26	GIOVE-B GIOVE-B
Galileo-IOV-PFM / Thijs, Galileo-IOV-FM2 / Natalia	2011-10-21	ESA-Galileo (early-design) ESA-Galileo (early-design) ESA-Galileo (early-design) Galileo-IOV Galileo (logo)
Galileo-IOV-FM3 / David, Galileo-IOV-FM4 / Sif	2012-10-12
Galileo-FOC-FM1 (Galileo-5) series	2014-08-22 →	Galileo-FOC Galileo-FOC Galileo-13/14 (launch drawing) Galileo-15/18 (launch drawing) Galileo-15/18 (launch cutaway)

(Selected) China/PRC Beidou (BD) constellation satellites:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
Beidou-1 (series)	2000-10-30 — 2007-02-02	BD-1	Beidou (BD)	Beidou (BD)
Beidou-2G (series)	2010-01-16 →	BD-2G
Beidou-2I (series)	2010-07-31 — 2011-12-01	BD-2M BD-GEO BD-MEO-IGSO
Beidou-2M, Beidou-2I (series)	2007-04-13 →
Beidou-3G (series)	2018-11-01 →	BD-3G
Beidou-3I (series)	2015-03-30 →	BD-3I BD-3I-S BD-3I-3S
Beidou-3M (series)	2015-07-25 →	BD-3M-S

(Selected) Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) / NVS (NavIC constellation):

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
IRNSS-1A — IRNSS-1I (NavIC series)	2013-07-01 — 2018-04-11	IRNSS	IRNSS / NavIC	IRNSS / NavIC
IRNSS-1J / NVS-01 — IRNSS-1N / NVS-05 (NavIC series)	2023-05-29 →	IRNSS-2

Japanese Quasi Zenith Satellite (System) (QZS(S)) / Michibiki constellation:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
QZS-1 / Michibiki-1	2010-09-11	QZS-1	QZS / Michibiki	QZS / Michibiki
QZS-2 / Michibiki-2	2017-06-01?	QZS-2/4 type
QZS-3 / Michibiki-3	2017-08-19	QZS-3
QZS-4 / Michibiki-4	2017-10-09	QZS-2/4 type
QZS-5 / Michibiki-5	?
QZS-6 / Michibiki-6	2025-02-02

USA Hawk constellation satellites:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
Hawk-[1]A/[1]B/[1]C [SmallSat Express group]	2018-12-03	Hawk-1	Hawk	Hawk
Hawk-2A/2B/2C [Transporter-1 group]	2021-01-24
Hawk-3A/3B/3C [Transporter-2 group]	2021-06-30
Hawk-4A/4B/4C [Transporter-4 group]	2022-04-01
Hawk-5A/5B/5C [Transporter-5 group]	2022-05-25	Hawk-5
Hawk-6A/6B/6C	2023-01-24
Hawk-7A/7B/7C [Transporter-7 group]	2023-04-15
Hawk-8A/8B/8C, Hawk-9A/9B/9C [Bandwagon-1 group]	2024-04-07
Hawk-10A/10B/10C [Transporter-11 group]	2024-08-16
Hawk-11A/11B/11C [Bandwagon-2 group]	2024-12-21
Hawk-12A/12B/12C	2025-06-27

Other (selected) USA navigation satellites:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	other postal items
Topo-1 (Topo-A)	1970-04-08	SECOR-1 (Topo-1 similar)	Topo-1 (with Nimbus-4)
ANGELS / USA-255	2014-07-28	ANGELS	ANGELS (with GSSAP-1/2)

Other (selected) non-USA navigation satellites:

Satellite	Country	Launch Date	Images
			reference	launch covers	other postal items
Geo-IK (series)	Russia	1981-01-23 — 1994-11-29	Geo-IK		"Geo-IK"
GFZ-1 (geodesy) [Progress-M27 launched]	Germany	1995-04-09 (launched to Mir) 1995-04-18 (deployed from Mir)	GFZ-1 GFZ-1	GFZ-1	GFZ-1

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