The local space context of Vientiane 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 | 17.967° N, 102.600° E | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|---|
| population | 840,940 inhabitants | GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0 |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 802 Brigade missile base, Jianshui (Ching-yu), Yunnan province | 629 km N (2°) | 23.620° N, 102.820° E | gcat-sites |
| Haikou Space Center, Hainan | 708 km ENE (75°) | 19.529° N, 109.119° E | gcat-sites |
| 808/402 Brigade Missile Base, Chuxiong, Yunnan province | 797 km N (352°) | 25.062° N, 101.532° E | gcat-sites |
| Hainan Shangye Hangtian Fashe Chang (Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site) | 895 km ENE (77°) | 19.597° N, 110.931° E | gcat-sites |
| Wenchang Space Center, Hainan | 898 km ENE (77°) | 19.614° N, 110.951° E | gcat-sites |
| NE Hainan missile launch point | 905 km ENE (75°) | 19.876° N, 110.961° E | gcat-sites |
| site | distance · bearing | position | source layer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long March 5 | Chang'e 7 | 898 km ENE (77°) | 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, 20,797 fly orbits whose ground track reaches 17.967° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other 2,454 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 68.9° 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 Vientiane in Stargazing — it computes which satellites are visible now, from this
registry, in your browser.