The local space context of Abu Dhabi as this registry holds it — the catalogued human footprint on the ground around it, the orbits that can pass overhead, and the geostationary belt seen from here.
| position | 24.451° N, 54.397° E | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|---|
| population | 1,807,000 inhabitants | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bandar-e-Jask, Hormozgan | 365 km ENE (68°) | 25.644° N, 57.774° E | gcat-sites |
| US Navy interceptor launch point, Aegis ships, Arabian Sea | 371 km NW (320°) | 27.000° N, 52.000° E | gcat-sites |
| US Navy interceptor launch point, Aegis ships, Persian Gulf | 371 km NW (320°) | 27.000° N, 52.000° E | gcat-sites |
| Unknown PrSM launch location, Persian Gulf | 443 km NW (311°) | 27.000° N, 51.000° E | gcat-sites |
| South Shiraz Missile Base | 589 km NNW (342°) | 29.464° N, 52.488° E | gcat-sites |
| Etlaq Spaceport | 633 km SSE (147°) | 19.640° N, 57.678° E | gcat-sites |
| Chabahar Space Center | 698 km E (82°) | 25.141° N, 61.272° E | gcat-sites |
| Umm Qasr (Um Qassir) | 891 km NW (316°) | 30.050° N, 47.950° E | gcat-sites |
| Mobile launchers in Basra region | 935 km NW (317°) | 30.500° N, 47.800° E | gcat-sites |
| Dasht-E-Kabir, Iran (Khatami Air Base?) | 956 km NNW (346°) | 32.750° N, 51.850° E | gcat-sites |
| Al Sulayil missile base, Saudi Arabia | 995 km WSW (247°) | 20.719° N, 45.584° E | gcat-sites |
Distances are great-circle on a sphere of mean radius 6,371 km; bearings are initial true bearings from the city. Each position is the source catalogue's own, read back from the registry.
Of the 23,251 artificial objects the registry places in Earth orbit on 2026-10-18, 20,602 fly orbits whose ground track reaches 24.451° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other 2,649 never reach this latitude.
| space station | inclination | can pass overhead |
|---|---|---|
| Bai Xiang | 85.0° | yes |
| International Space Station (+3 docked records) | 51.6° | yes |
| Kosmos-382 | 55.9° | yes |
| Tianhe | 41.5° | yes |
Computed: an orbit's equatorial inclination bounds the latitudes its track reaches (inclination i, or 180° − i when retrograde), from the orbital elements the registry holds. «Can pass overhead» is geometry, not a schedule — when, and whether it is lit and visible, depends on the hour.
The geostationary belt arcs across the southern sky and stands 61.4° above the horizon due south — the elevation to aim at for a satellite at this city's own longitude. Computed: spherical Earth (equatorial radius 6,378.137 km), circular orbit of one sidereal day (42,164 km); good to a few tenths of a degree.
/sim.html#sel=EARTH&tn=1,
then stand at Abu Dhabi in Stargazing — it computes which satellites are visible now, from this
registry, in your browser.