Yaogan Weixing 8

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Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/36121

  • Earth-watching satellite
  • Military
  • YAOGAN 8
  • NORAD 36121
  • 2009-072A
  • Low Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where Yaogan Weixing 8 is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over the Pacific Ocean

Orbit ends over the Pacific Ocean

In the Earth’s shadow since

Back in sunlight

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Yaogan Weixing 8 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 Yaogan Weixing 8, 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 it is up there for reaches the ground as pictures and measurements, not as a light in the sky.

Timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source

Summary

Over Zambia LIVE

Where is Yaogan Weixing 8?

At 7:27:58 PM UTC Yaogan Weixing 8 was over Zambia (12.1° S, 27.3° E), 1,263 km up, moving at 7.22 km/s and in the Earth’s shadow.

What is Yaogan Weixing 8?

A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Dec 15, 2009.

Can I see Yaogan Weixing 8?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Yaogan Weixing 8, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.

General

Operator
General Armaments Dept. of the PLA
State
China, People's Republic of
Built by
Shanghai Academy of Space Technology (CASC 8th Acad)
What it is
Earth-watching satellite
Military
Yes: a defence organisation flies it
Launched
Mass
about 1 t
Operating
Orbit class
Low Earth orbit

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
7:27 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
7:27 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
12.1° S, 27.3° E
Altitude
1,263 km
Speed
7.22 km/s (25,978 km/h)
Course
south
Light
In the Earth’s shadow until 7:32 PM UTC
Inclination
100.2°
Orbital period
110.3 minutes
Orbits per day
13.05
This orbit
1,223 to 1,256 km
In shadow
32 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 2,750 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 8, 2026, 3:45 AM, 15 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 3:45 AM, 15 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Yaogan Weixing 8, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to Yaogan Weixing 8 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.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

Launched with

Yaogan Weixing 8 shares its launch, 2009-072, with 7 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.

BodyWhat it is
XIWANG-1 (HOPE-1)Communications satellite
CZ-4C R/BRocket body
CZ-4C DEBDebris
CZ-4C DEBDebris
CZ-4C DEBDebris
CZ-4C DEBDebris
CZ-4C DEBDebris

Read from the international designators of the US catalogue: the year and the launch number every piece of one launch shares. A body that has come down is no longer listed.

Beside the others

SatelliteTypical altitudeOrbital periodMassIn space since
Yaogan Weixing 81,223 to 1,256 km110 minutesabout 1 t2009
Sentinel-6MF1,332 to 1,344 km112 minutesabout 1.2 t2020
Sentinel-6B1,332 to 1,344 km112 minutesabout 1.2 t2025
Sentinel-5P826 to 828 km101 minutes820 kg2017
Suomi NPP825 to 829 km101 minutesabout 2.1 t2011
MetOp-SG A1820 to 821 km101 minutesabout 4 t2025

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 3:45 AM, 15 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "YAOGAN 8",
  "OBJECT_ID": "2009-072A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-08T03:45:57.147552",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 13.0508664,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00212369,
  "INCLINATION": 100.1914,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 188.8946,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 1.2567,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 358.859,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 36121,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 80745,
  "BSTAR": -0.001174343,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000422,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}