The local space context of Lanzhou 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 | 36.057° N, 103.840° E | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|---|
| population | 4,359,446 inhabitants | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bayan Hot test range | 338 km NNE (27°) | 38.758° N, 105.608° E | gcat-sites |
| Alashan Youqi airport | 406 km NNW (331°) | 39.226° N, 101.548° E | gcat-sites |
| Jilantai Missile Test Ground, Nei Monggol province | 448 km NNE (19°) | 39.850° N, 105.580° E | gcat-sites |
| 806th Brigade missile base, Huanglong, Shaanxi province | 600 km E (94°) | 35.474° N, 110.447° E | gcat-sites |
| 414 Brigade Missile Base, Delingha, Qinghai province | 625 km WNW (286°) | 37.408° N, 97.028° E | gcat-sites |
| Jiuquan Space Center, Nei Monggol Zizhiqu, China | 659 km NNW (333°) | 41.310° N, 100.310° E | gcat-sites |
| Yumen Missile Base, China | 778 km NW (307°) | 40.000° N, 96.500° E | gcat-sites |
| 412 Brigade Missile Base, Da Qaidam, Qinghai province | 780 km WNW (287°) | 37.852° N, 95.355° E | gcat-sites |
| Taiyuan weixing fashe zhongxin | 796 km ENE (76°) | 37.500° N, 112.600° E | gcat-sites |
| Space Pioneer Gongyi Static Test Site | 848 km E (97°) | 34.709° N, 113.051° E | gcat-sites |
| Xichang Space Center (Songlin), Sichuan, China | 885 km SSW (192°) | 28.247° N, 102.029° E | gcat-sites |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zhuque-3 | Flight 2 | 624 km NNW (331°) | 40.920° N, 100.251° E | launchlibrary |
| Long March 2F/G | Shenzhou 24 | 626 km NNW (332°) | 40.958° N, 100.291° E | 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, 20,041 fly orbits whose ground track reaches 36.057° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other 3,210 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° | 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 arcs across the southern sky and stands 48.2° 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 Lanzhou in Stargazing — it computes which satellites are visible now, from this
registry, in your browser.