The local space context of Austin 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
30.267° N, 97.743° W
GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0
population
974,447 inhabitants
GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0
On the ground within 1000 km
Launch sites — 18 within 1000 km
site
distance · bearing
position
source layer
SpaceX McGregor Test Site
129 km NNE (12°)
31.400° N, 97.460° W
gcat-sites
Matagorda Island, Texas
255 km SSE (151°)
28.250° N, 96.500° W
gcat-sites
Dyess AFB, Texas
312 km NW (321°)
32.421° N, 99.855° W
gcat-sites
Barksdale AFB
456 km NE (56°)
32.520° N, 93.730° W
gcat-sites
Texas Launch Site, Boca Chica Beach, Texas
478 km S (173°)
25.996° N, 97.154° W
gcat-sites
Starbase, Boca Chica Beach, Texas
478 km S (173°)
25.996° N, 97.154° W
gcat-sites
Altus AFB
509 km NNW (344°)
34.663° N, 99.274° W
gcat-sites
Blue Origin, West Texas Launch Site, Corn Ranch
682 km WNW (283°)
31.423° N, 104.757° W
gcat-sites
Walker AFB, Roswell, New Mexico
725 km WNW (300°)
33.302° N, 104.531° W
gcat-sites
Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas
735 km NE (44°)
34.900° N, 92.150° W
gcat-sites
Alamagordo Army Air Field
842 km WNW (292°)
32.850° N, 106.103° W
gcat-sites
AFMDC, Air Force Missile Development Center, Holloman Air Force Base
842 km WNW (292°)
32.850° N, 106.103° W
gcat-sites
Holloman Air Development Center, New Mexico
842 km WNW (292°)
32.850° N, 106.103° W
gcat-sites
Port Bienville Launch Area, Gulf of Mexico
843 km E (90°)
29.998° N, 88.977° W
gcat-sites
Hueco Range, Fort Bliss, Texas
865 km WNW (284°)
31.800° N, 106.650° W
gcat-sites
… and 3 more within 1000 km
Ground stations and transmitting sites — 1 within 1000 km
site
distance · bearing
position
source layer
Trinity Site
906 km WNW (297°)
33.680° N, 106.470° W
nuclear-tests
Announced launches (their pads) — 1 within 1000 km
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.
What can pass overhead
Of the 23,251 artificial objects the registry places in Earth orbit
on 2026-10-18, 20,269 fly orbits whose ground
track reaches 30.267° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other
2,982 never reach this latitude.
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 from here
The geostationary belt arcs across the southern sky and stands
54.7° 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.
What this page does not know
Tonight's sky and pass times. They depend on the hour, so a static page would print a
stale number. Open the live scene in a browser: /sim.html#sel=EARTH&tn=1,
then stand at Austin in Stargazing — it computes which satellites are visible now, from this
registry, in your browser.
Anything not catalogued. A site absent from the source catalogues is absent here; an
empty list means «not in the registry», not «nothing there».
Precision beyond the sources. Positions carry the precision their catalogue published.