The local space context of Kumamoto 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
32.806° N, 130.692° E
GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0
population
738,907 inhabitants
GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0
On the ground within 1000 km
Launch sites — 52 within 1000 km
site
distance · bearing
position
source layer
Kagoshima Space Center, Kagoshima, Kyushu, Nippon
177 km SSE (168°)
31.250° N, 131.079° E
gcat-sites
Uchinoura Space Center, Kagoshima (formerly Kagoshima)
177 km SSE (168°)
31.250° N, 131.079° E
gcat-sites
Tanegashima Space Center, Tanegashima, Nippon
269 km S (174°)
30.400° N, 130.970° E
gcat-sites
Naro Space Center (Naro Uju Senteo),Oenaro I,GoHeung, Jeollanam-do,Korea
344 km WNW (303°)
34.432° N, 127.536° E
gcat-sites
Barge launch site, Jungmun, Jeju I.
403 km W (277°)
33.200° N, 126.400° E
gcat-sites
Spaceport Kii, Kanagawa
491 km E (79°)
33.544° N, 135.889° E
gcat-sites
Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex, South Australia
514 km ENE (61°)
34.940° N, 135.630° E
gcat-sites
Gangneung Airbase, South Korea
572 km NNW (345°)
37.754° N, 128.966° E
gcat-sites
Anhueng, Taean missile site, Ch'ungch'ong Namdo, Korea
581 km NW (315°)
36.410° N, 126.100° E
gcat-sites
Goseong, South Korea
668 km NNW (343°)
38.523° N, 128.418° E
gcat-sites
Kaesong, North Hwanghae Prov.
681 km NNW (328°)
37.938° N, 126.588° E
gcat-sites
Koksan, North Hwanghae
719 km NNW (339°)
38.800° N, 127.700° E
gcat-sites
Tongchon, Gangwon Province (Kangwon-do)
726 km NNW (340°)
38.930° N, 127.880° E
gcat-sites
Chiha-ri, Ich'on, Kangwon do, Choson
741 km NNW (332°)
38.623° N, 126.685° E
gcat-sites
Kittaeryong (Gitdaeryung), Anbyun, Gangwon Province (Kangwon-do)
741 km NNW (339°)
38.991° N, 127.624° E
gcat-sites
… and 37 more within 1000 km
Ground stations and transmitting sites — 1 within 1000 km
site
distance · bearing
position
source layer
Punggye-ri
953 km N (352°)
41.280° N, 129.080° E
nuclear-tests
Announced launches (their pads) — 5 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, 20,214 fly orbits whose ground
track reaches 32.806° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other
3,037 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
51.8° 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
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 Kumamoto 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.