- Communications satellite
- APSTAR 6
- NORAD 28638
- 2005-012A
- 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 Apstar 6 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 Apstar 6, 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 Apstar 6, Apr 25, 2020 to Aug 7, 2020, as public sources state. Its sources
Summary
Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE
Where is Apstar 6?
At 6:45:38 PM UTC Apstar 6 was over the Pacific Ocean (6.8° N, 142.9° W), 36,296 km up, moving at 3.06 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Apstar 6?
A communications satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Apr 12, 2005.
Can I see Apstar 6?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Apstar 6, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- Asia Pacific Telecom
- State
- Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
- Built by
- Alcatel Space, Centre spatiale de Cannes-Mandelieu
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 4.6 t
- Operating
- No: its regular operations have ended
- 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
- 6:45 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:45 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 6.8° N, 142.9° W
- Altitude
- 36,296 km
- Speed
- 3.06 km/s (10,998 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 7.7°
- Orbital period
- 1,460.9 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 0.99
- This orbit
- 36,244 to 36,299 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,960 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 12:02 AM, 18 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 12:02 AM, 18 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Apstar 6, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Apstar 6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apstar 6 | 36,244 to 36,299 km | 1,461 minutes | about 4.6 t | 2005 |
| 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, 12:02 AM, 18 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "APSTAR 6",
"OBJECT_ID": "2005-012A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T00:02:22.941024",
"MEAN_MOTION": 0.98570693,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00063722,
"INCLINATION": 7.7258,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 67.509,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 295.1069,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 266.8825,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 28638,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 10345,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 2e-8,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}