- Navigation satellite
- Military
- CHINASAT 31 (BEIDOU 1B)
- NORAD 26643
- 2000-082A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Pacific Ocean
Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches Beidou DSW 2 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 Beidou DSW 2, 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 far too high and too faint for the naked eye. What you notice of it is a position fix, and the card above says whether it is above your horizon to give you one.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is Beidou DSW 2?
At 4:54:24 PM UTC Beidou DSW 2 was over the Pacific Ocean (12.8° N, 178° E), 35,746 km up, moving at 3.09 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Beidou DSW 2?
A navigation satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Dec 20, 2000.
Can I see Beidou DSW 2?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Beidou DSW 2, and nothing here estimates one; receivers on the ground use its signals instead, whenever it is above their horizon.
General
- Operator
- China National Space Administration
- State
- China, People's Republic of
- Built by
- Chinese Academy of Space Technology, Beijing (CASC 5th Acad)
- What it is
- Navigation satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 2.3 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, that a defence organisation flies it, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 4:54 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 4:54 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 12.8° N, 178° E
- Altitude
- 35,746 km
- Speed
- 3.09 km/s (11,117 km/h)
- Course
- south-east
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 12.8°
- Orbital period
- 1,450.8 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 0.99
- This orbit
- 35,746 to 36,403 km
- In view from
- Within 7,940 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 11:11 AM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 11:11 AM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Beidou DSW 2, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Beidou DSW 2 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.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 7, 2026, 11:11 AM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "CHINASAT 31 (BEIDOU 1B)",
"OBJECT_ID": "2000-082A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T11:11:08.278656",
"MEAN_MOTION": 0.99256016,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00773273,
"INCLINATION": 12.7971,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 26.2031,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 93.0868,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 277.5964,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 26643,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 5350,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000131,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}