- Communications satellite
- Military
- CHINASAT 20
- NORAD 28082
- 2003-052A
- 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 Zhongxing 20 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 20, 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 Zhongxing 20, Feb 10, 2018 to Mar 16, 2018, as public sources state. Its sources
Summary
Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is Zhongxing 20?
At 7:26:26 PM UTC Zhongxing 20 was over the Pacific Ocean (10.8° N, 156.8° E), 36,108 km up, moving at 3.06 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Zhongxing 20?
A communications satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Nov 14, 2003.
Can I see Zhongxing 20?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Zhongxing 20, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- General Armaments Dept. of the PLA
- State
- China, People's Republic of
- Built by
- Chinese Academy of Space Technology, Beijing (CASC 5th Acad)
- What it is
- Communications 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
- 7:26 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 7:26 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 10.8° N, 156.8° E
- Altitude
- 36,108 km
- Speed
- 3.06 km/s (11,027 km/h)
- Course
- north-east
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 10.8°
- Orbital period
- 1,452.9 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 0.99
- This orbit
- 36,093 to 36,137 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,950 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 1:29 PM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 1:29 PM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Zhongxing 20, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Zhongxing 20 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zhongxing 20 | 36,093 to 36,137 km | 1,453 minutes | about 2.3 t | 2003 |
| 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, 1:29 PM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "CHINASAT 20",
"OBJECT_ID": "2003-052A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T13:29:38.573664",
"MEAN_MOTION": 0.99114214,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00051949,
"INCLINATION": 10.7786,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 48.5147,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 163.2927,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 199.4498,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 28082,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 8381,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000254,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}