- Communications satellite
- CHINASAT 6B
- NORAD 31800
- 2007-031A
- Medium Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Tanzania
Orbit ends over Tanzania
In view from you
Nobody watches Zhongxing 6B 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 6B, 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 6B, Dec 25, 2019 to Jan 27, 2020, as public sources state. Its sources
Summary
Over Uganda LIVE
Where is Zhongxing 6B?
At 8:58:40 AM UTC Zhongxing 6B was over Uganda (1.9° N, 32.1° E), 36,127 km up, moving at 3.06 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Zhongxing 6B?
A communications satellite in medium Earth orbit, in space since Jul 5, 2007.
Can I see Zhongxing 6B?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Zhongxing 6B, and nothing here estimates one; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- China Satellite Communications Corp. Group (China Satcom)
- State
- China, People's Republic of
- Built by
- Thales Alenia Space
- What it is
- Communications satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 4.5 t
- Operating
- Orbit class
- Medium Earth orbit
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
- 8:58 AM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 8:58 AM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 1.9° N, 32.1° E
- Altitude
- 36,127 km
- Speed
- 3.06 km/s (11,023 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 2.8°
- Orbital period
- 1,453.7 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 0.99
- This orbit
- 36,094 to 36,167 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,950 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 11:05 PM, 9 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 11:05 PM, 9 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Zhongxing 6B, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Zhongxing 6B has been reported publicly in the past thirty days.
From Space-Track’s public conjunction messages; the latest report was issued Nov 9, 2026, 5:39 AM, 2 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 6B | 36,094 to 36,167 km | 1,454 minutes | about 4.5 t | 2007 |
| 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, 11:05 PM, 9 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "CHINASAT 6B",
"OBJECT_ID": "2007-031A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T23:05:44.021184",
"MEAN_MOTION": 0.99060377,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00086049,
"INCLINATION": 2.8148,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 77.8545,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 224.8046,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 125.8803,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 31800,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 7082,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 2.6e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}