The local space context of Sakai 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
34.582° N, 135.466° E
GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0
population
826,161 inhabitants
GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0
On the ground within 1000 km
Launch sites — 35 within 1000 km
site
distance · bearing
position
source layer
Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex, South Australia
42 km NNE (21°)
34.940° N, 135.630° E
gcat-sites
Spaceport Kii, Kanagawa
122 km SSE (161°)
33.544° N, 135.889° E
gcat-sites
Niijima, Nippon
350 km E (94°)
34.330° N, 139.270° E
gcat-sites
Kagoshima Space Center, Kagoshima, Kyushu, Nippon
552 km SW (229°)
31.250° N, 131.079° E
gcat-sites
Uchinoura Space Center, Kagoshima (formerly Kagoshima)
552 km SW (229°)
31.250° N, 131.079° E
gcat-sites
Tanegashima Space Center, Tanegashima, Nippon
628 km SW (223°)
30.400° N, 130.970° E
gcat-sites
Sendai, Japan
636 km NE (48°)
38.270° N, 140.900° E
gcat-sites
Gangneung Airbase, South Korea
682 km WNW (303°)
37.754° N, 128.966° E
gcat-sites
Akita Rocket Range (ATC)
688 km NE (35°)
39.571° N, 140.057° E
gcat-sites
Naro Space Center (Naro Uju Senteo),Oenaro I,GoHeung, Jeollanam-do,Korea
727 km W (271°)
34.432° N, 127.536° E
gcat-sites
Ryori, Sanrikucho, Japan
752 km NE (47°)
39.030° N, 141.830° E
gcat-sites
Goseong, South Korea
767 km NW (307°)
38.523° N, 128.418° E
gcat-sites
Tongchon, Gangwon Province (Kangwon-do)
830 km NW (308°)
38.930° N, 127.880° E
gcat-sites
Koksan, North Hwanghae
836 km NW (306°)
38.800° N, 127.700° E
gcat-sites
Barge launch site, Jungmun, Jeju I.
851 km W (262°)
33.200° N, 126.400° E
gcat-sites
… and 20 more within 1000 km
Ground stations and transmitting sites — 1 within 1000 km
site
distance · bearing
position
source layer
Punggye-ri
931 km NW (325°)
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, 20,186 fly orbits whose ground
track reaches 34.582° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other
3,065 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
49.8° 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 Sakai 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.