The local space context of Laiyang 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
36.976° N, 120.714° E
GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0
population
872,000 inhabitants
GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0
On the ground within 1000 km
Launch sites — 60 within 1000 km
site
distance · bearing
position
source layer
Haiyang test site, Shandong
47 km ESE (114°)
36.800° N, 121.200° E
gcat-sites
Jianggezhuang Submarine Base
98 km S (187°)
36.104° N, 120.579° E
gcat-sites
Bohai launch area (Some Yellow Sea launches may also be here)
170 km N (5°)
38.500° N, 120.900° E
gcat-sites
Huang Hai CZ-11 launch zone
235 km S (169°)
34.900° N, 121.190° E
gcat-sites
410 Brigate Missile Base, Dengshahe, Liaoning province
277 km NNE (25°)
39.229° N, 122.054° E
gcat-sites
822 Brigade missile base, Laiwu, Shangdong province
280 km WSW (254°)
36.235° N, 117.716° E
gcat-sites
Yellow Sea launch area
301 km SE (136°)
35.000° N, 123.000° E
gcat-sites
51St Base, Fengrun, Tangshan, Hebei province
393 km NW (325°)
39.856° N, 118.093° E
gcat-sites
Jangyon (Changyon), S Hwanghae prov.
411 km ENE (69°)
38.250° N, 125.100° E
gcat-sites
Kwail? Launch site in S Hwanghae Province
412 km ENE (66°)
38.426° N, 125.019° E
gcat-sites
Huludao Shipyard test site
414 km N (1°)
40.700° N, 120.800° E
gcat-sites
Scud launch site near Eunyul, N Hwanghae Prov.
429 km ENE (65°)
38.519° N, 125.183° E
gcat-sites
Sohae Launch Site, Tongch'ang-dong, Pyongang-bukdo (N Pyongan Prov), N Korea
459 km NE (48°)
39.660° N, 124.706° E
gcat-sites
Scud launch site near Nampo, South Pyongan Prov. (Pyong'annam-do)
464 km ENE (63°)
38.750° N, 125.500° E
gcat-sites
T'aesong-ho missile launch site
467 km ENE (61°)
38.907° N, 125.440° E
gcat-sites
… and 45 more within 1000 km
Ground stations and transmitting sites — 1 within 1000 km
site
distance · bearing
position
source layer
Punggye-ri
865 km NE (54°)
41.280° N, 129.080° E
nuclear-tests
Announced launches (their pads) — 2 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, 20,024 fly orbits whose ground
track reaches 36.976° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other
3,227 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
47.1° 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.
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 Laiyang 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.