The local space context of Detroit 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 | 42.331° N, 83.046° W | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|---|
| population | 645,705 inhabitants | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wurtsmith AFB | 237 km N (354°) | 44.452° N, 83.380° W | gcat-sites |
| Keweenaw Rocket Launch Site (KRLS), Michigan | 676 km NNW (329°) | 47.430° N, 87.720° W | gcat-sites |
| Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland | 720 km SE (126°) | 38.286° N, 76.408° W | gcat-sites |
| Naval Air Ordnance Test Station, Chincoteague, Virginia | 808 km SE (125°) | 37.938° N, 75.463° W | gcat-sites |
| Wallops Island Main Base, NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Chincoteague, Virginia | 808 km SE (125°) | 37.938° N, 75.463° W | gcat-sites |
| Plattsburgh AFB, NY | 814 km ENE (68°) | 44.653° N, 73.469° W | gcat-sites |
| Plattsburgh AFB or other FB-111 base | 815 km ENE (68°) | 44.660° N, 73.460° W | gcat-sites |
| Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Wallops Island, Virginia | 815 km SE (125°) | 37.830° N, 75.480° W | gcat-sites |
| Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia | 815 km SE (125°) | 37.830° N, 75.480° W | gcat-sites |
| Vize Expedition 6, 1978 (SU017921) | 836 km ESE (123°) | 38.000° N, 75.000° W | gcat-sites |
| 1964 Croatan MRF Expedition | 836 km ESE (123°) | 38.000° N, 75.000° W | gcat-sites |
| 1965 Croatan MRF Expedition | 836 km ESE (123°) | 38.000° N, 75.000° W | gcat-sites |
| Ninigret State Park (Charlestown NAS), Charlestown, Rhode Island | 948 km E (93°) | 41.360° N, 71.670° W | gcat-sites |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neutron | Maiden Flight | 814 km SE (125°) | 37.832° N, 75.490° W | launchlibrary |
| Electron | 6x HawkEye 360 | 814 km SE (125°) | 37.833° N, 75.488° W | launchlibrary |
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, 19,911 fly orbits whose ground track reaches 42.331° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other 3,340 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° | no — its track stops at 41.5° |
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 41.1° 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 Detroit in Stargazing — it computes which satellites are visible now, from this
registry, in your browser.