- Communications satellite
- STTW-4
- NORAD 20473
- 1990-011A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Indian Ocean
Orbit ends over the Indian Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Zhongxing 3 go over, but a receiver still asks whether it is above the horizon. Say where you are and this card answers.
Your position is rounded to about a kilometre and sent only to the Orbinauts API, to find the pass.
No brightness has been published for Zhongxing 3, so it is not a naked-eye satellite and no city page carries pass times for it. Nothing here estimates one.
Seeing it
There is nothing to go outside for: it is too faint for the naked eye. What reaches you from it reaches a dish or an antenna, not an eye.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Bay of Bengal LIVE
Where is Zhongxing 3?
At 7:04:41 PM UTC Zhongxing 3 was over the Bay of Bengal (13.8° N, 88.6° E), 35,804 km up, moving at 3.07 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Zhongxing 3?
A communications satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Feb 4, 1990.
Can I see Zhongxing 3?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Zhongxing 3, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- China Satellite Communications Crop.
- State
- China, People's Republic of
- Built by
- Chinese Academy of Space Technology, Beijing (CASC 5th Acad)
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- 460 kg
- Operating
- Orbit class
- Inclined geosynchronous
From GCAT, Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0: the operator, the state, the manufacturer, what it is for, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 7:04 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 7:04 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 13.8° N, 88.6° E
- Altitude
- 35,804 km
- Speed
- 3.07 km/s (11,066 km/h)
- Course
- north-east
- Light
- In sunlight until 5:24 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 14.1°
- Orbital period
- 1,436.7 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 1
- This orbit
- 35,788 to 35,810 km
- In shadow
- 59 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,940 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 1:07 AM, 17 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 1:07 AM, 17 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Zhongxing 3, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Zhongxing 3 has been reported publicly in the past thirty days.
From Space-Track’s public conjunction messages; the latest report was issued Nov 8, 2026, 1:11 PM, 3 hours old. Only approaches serious enough to be reported publicly are listed: within three days and, for two bodies near the Earth, closer than a kilometre with a chance of a collision above 1 in 10,000, the level at which NASA moves the ISS.
Launched with
Zhongxing 3 shares its launch, 1990-011, with 2 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
Read from the international designators of the US catalogue: the year and the launch number every piece of one launch shares. A body that has come down is no longer listed.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zhongxing 3 | 35,788 to 35,810 km | 1,437 minutes | 460 kg | 1990 |
| Hispasat 30W-6 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 6.1 t | 2018 |
| Amazonas Nexus | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2023 |
| ARSAT-1 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 3 t | 2014 |
| Astra 1N | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.3 t | 2011 |
| Hotbird 13F | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.5 t | 2022 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 1:07 AM, 17 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "STTW-4",
"OBJECT_ID": "1990-011A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T01:07:24.211200",
"MEAN_MOTION": 1.00231678,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00025846,
"INCLINATION": 14.0853,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 345.3217,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 206.4898,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 321.419,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 20473,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 13448,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000233,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}