The local space context of Shantou 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 | 23.355° N, 116.679° E | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|---|
| population | 3,838,900 inhabitants | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ganzhou missile base, Brigade 616 | 321 km NNW (328°) | 25.800° N, 115.000° E | gcat-sites |
| Chio He air base, Pingtung, Formosa (Taiwan) [== JP?] | 400 km ESE (101°) | 22.600° N, 120.500° E | gcat-sites |
| Jiu Peng air base 7, Pingtung, Formosa | 456 km ESE (107°) | 22.130° N, 120.920° E | gcat-sites |
| Fuan? missile base | 501 km NE (35°) | 27.000° N, 119.600° E | gcat-sites |
| Yangjiang launch area | 534 km WSW (245°) | 21.280° N, 112.000° E | gcat-sites |
| Leping missile base, Jianxi, China | 626 km N (4°) | 28.970° N, 117.120° E | gcat-sites |
| Wenzhou missile base, Zhejiang | 664 km NNE (33°) | 28.300° N, 120.400° E | gcat-sites |
| NE Hainan missile launch point | 706 km WSW (238°) | 19.876° N, 110.961° E | gcat-sites |
| Wenchang Space Center, Hainan | 724 km SW (236°) | 19.614° N, 110.951° E | gcat-sites |
| Hainan Shangye Hangtian Fashe Chang (Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site) | 727 km SW (236°) | 19.597° N, 110.931° E | gcat-sites |
| Shijiedu sounding rocket site, Anhui Province | 881 km NNE (16°) | 30.950° N, 119.220° E | gcat-sites |
| Ninbgo missile base, Zhejiang province | 881 km NNE (34°) | 29.880° N, 121.717° E | gcat-sites |
| Haikou Space Center, Hainan | 890 km WSW (243°) | 19.529° N, 109.119° E | gcat-sites |
| Laogang sounding rocket site, Shanghai Shi, Zhongguo | 992 km NNE (30°) | 31.020° N, 121.820° E | gcat-sites |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long March 5 | Chang'e 7 | 724 km SW (236°) | 19.614° N, 110.951° 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, 20,640 fly orbits whose ground track reaches 23.355° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other 2,611 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 62.7° 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.
/sim.html#sel=EARTH&tn=1,
then stand at Shantou in Stargazing — it computes which satellites are visible now, from this
registry, in your browser.