- Communications satellite
- Military
- CHINASAT 22A
- NORAD 29398
- 2006-038A
- Inclined geosynchronous
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Indian Ocean
Orbit ends over the Indian Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches Zhongxing 22A 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 22A, 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 Laccadive Sea LIVE
Where is Zhongxing 22A?
At 7:28:17 PM UTC Zhongxing 22A was over the Laccadive Sea (4.5° N, 78.3° E), 35,860 km up, moving at 3.07 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Zhongxing 22A?
A communications satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Sep 12, 2006.
Can I see Zhongxing 22A?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Zhongxing 22A, 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
- 7:28 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 7:28 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 4.5° N, 78.3° E
- Altitude
- 35,860 km
- Speed
- 3.07 km/s (11,056 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 11.7°
- Orbital period
- 1,439.1 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 1
- This orbit
- 35,829 to 35,863 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,950 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 7:48 PM, 23 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 7:48 PM, 23 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Zhongxing 22A, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Zhongxing 22A 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 22A | 35,829 to 35,863 km | 1,439 minutes | about 2.3 t | 2006 |
| 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, 7:48 PM, 23 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "CHINASAT 22A",
"OBJECT_ID": "2006-038A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T19:48:18.857664",
"MEAN_MOTION": 1.0006445,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00039661,
"INCLINATION": 11.7485,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 36.1231,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 184.861,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 202.5886,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 29398,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 7382,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -9.4e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}