- Communications satellite
- CHINASAT 5A (CHINASTAR1)
- NORAD 25354
- 1998-033A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Kenya
Orbit ends over Kenya
In view from you
Nobody watches Zhongwei 1 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 Zhongwei 1, 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
- Rendezvous
Shi Jian 17 came up beside Zhongwei 1, Nov 12, 2016 to Dec 29, 2016, as public sources state. Its sources
Summary
Over Tanzania LIVE
Where is Zhongwei 1?
At 7:03:29 PM UTC Zhongwei 1 was over Tanzania (6.8° S, 38.3° E), 36,180 km up, moving at 3.06 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Zhongwei 1?
A communications satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since May 30, 1998.
Can I see Zhongwei 1?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Zhongwei 1, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- China Orient Telecom Satellite Co. Ltd.
- State
- China, People's Republic of
- Built by
- Lockheed Martin/East Windsor
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 2.9 t
- 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
- 7:03 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 7:03 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 6.8° S, 38.3° E
- Altitude
- 36,180 km
- Speed
- 3.06 km/s (11,012 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 9.3°
- Orbital period
- 1,454.7 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 0.99
- This orbit
- 36,110 to 36,190 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,950 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 11:11 PM, 19 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 11:11 PM, 19 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Zhongwei 1, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Zhongwei 1 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zhongwei 1 | 36,110 to 36,190 km | 1,455 minutes | about 2.9 t | 1998 |
| 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 7, 2026, 11:11 PM, 19 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "CHINASAT 5A (CHINASTAR1)",
"OBJECT_ID": "1998-033A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T23:11:05.355744",
"MEAN_MOTION": 0.98992282,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00094015,
"INCLINATION": 9.3045,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 59.3736,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 174.6042,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 202.6686,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 25354,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 4736,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 4.1e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}