The local space context of San Antonio 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
29.424° N, 98.494° W
GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0
population
1,526,656 inhabitants
GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0
On the ground within 1000 km
Launch sites — 18 within 1000 km
site
distance · bearing
position
source layer
Matagorda Island, Texas
234 km ESE (123°)
28.250° N, 96.500° W
gcat-sites
SpaceX McGregor Test Site
241 km NNE (24°)
31.400° N, 97.460° W
gcat-sites
Dyess AFB, Texas
358 km NNW (339°)
32.421° N, 99.855° W
gcat-sites
Texas Launch Site, Boca Chica Beach, Texas
403 km SSE (161°)
25.996° N, 97.154° W
gcat-sites
Starbase, Boca Chica Beach, Texas
403 km SSE (161°)
25.996° N, 97.154° W
gcat-sites
Barksdale AFB
570 km NE (52°)
32.520° N, 93.730° W
gcat-sites
Altus AFB
587 km N (353°)
34.663° N, 99.274° W
gcat-sites
Blue Origin, West Texas Launch Site, Corn Ranch
640 km WNW (292°)
31.423° N, 104.757° W
gcat-sites
Walker AFB, Roswell, New Mexico
717 km NW (308°)
33.302° N, 104.531° W
gcat-sites
Alamagordo Army Air Field
818 km WNW (300°)
32.850° N, 106.103° W
gcat-sites
AFMDC, Air Force Missile Development Center, Holloman Air Force Base
818 km WNW (300°)
32.850° N, 106.103° W
gcat-sites
Holloman Air Development Center, New Mexico
818 km WNW (300°)
32.850° N, 106.103° W
gcat-sites
Hueco Range, Fort Bliss, Texas
824 km WNW (291°)
31.800° N, 106.650° W
gcat-sites
White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico
835 km WNW (295°)
32.400° N, 106.530° W
gcat-sites
Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas
852 km NE (43°)
34.900° N, 92.150° W
gcat-sites
… and 3 more within 1000 km
Ground stations and transmitting sites — 1 within 1000 km
site
distance · bearing
position
source layer
Trinity Site
891 km NW (304°)
33.680° N, 106.470° W
nuclear-tests
Announced launches (their pads) — 1 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, 20,290 fly orbits whose ground
track reaches 29.424° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other
2,961 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
55.7° 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 San Antonio 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.