Islamabad (PK)

The local space context of Islamabad 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.

position33.721° N, 73.043° EGeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0
population601,600 inhabitantsGeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0

On the ground within 1000 km

Launch sites — 2 within 1000 km

sitedistance · bearingpositionsource layer
Tilla Firing Range, Malute, Jhelum region, Punjab, Pakistan43 km SSE (146°)33.400° N, 73.300° Egcat-sites
Kattakurgan missile base, Samarkand region912 km NW (321°)39.900° N, 66.300° Egcat-sites

Ground stations and transmitting sites — 2 within 1000 km

sitedistance · bearingpositionsource layer
Pokhran747 km S (190°)27.100° N, 71.750° Enuclear-tests
Ras Koh (Chagai)946 km WSW (237°)28.760° N, 64.950° Enuclear-tests

Nuclear detonations — 7 within 1000 km

sitedistance · bearingpositionsource layer
TELKEM-2579 km NE (50°)37.000° N, 78.000° Enuclear-tests
Smiling Buddha749 km S (190°)27.080° N, 71.720° Enukes
SHAKTI 1-3751 km S (190°)27.070° N, 71.700° Enuclear-tests
SHAKTI4751 km S (190°)27.070° N, 71.700° Enuclear-tests
USSR test 2439998914 km NW (311°)38.890° N, 65.100° Enuclear-tests
Chagai-I942 km WSW (237°)28.830° N, 64.940° Enukes
USSR test 2439399951 km NW (309°)38.800° N, 64.500° Enuclear-tests

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, 20,202 fly orbits whose ground track reaches 33.721° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other 3,049 never reach this latitude.

space stationinclinationcan pass overhead
Bai Xiang85.0°yes
International Space Station (+3 docked records)51.6°yes
Kosmos-38255.9°yes
Tianhe41.5°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 from here

The geostationary belt arcs across the southern sky and stands 50.8° 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