Zhongxing 6A

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Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/37150

  • Communications satellite
  • CHINASAT 6A
  • NORAD 37150
  • 2010-042A
  • Medium Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where Zhongxing 6A is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over Indonesia

Orbit ends over the South China Sea

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Zhongxing 6A 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 6A, 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

  1. Launch

    Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source

  2. Rendezvous

    Shi Jian 17 came up beside Zhongxing 6A, Jun 20, 2017 to Sep 29, 2017, as public sources state. Its sources

Summary

Over Indonesia LIVE

Where is Zhongxing 6A?

At 5:36:13 PM UTC Zhongxing 6A was over Indonesia (1° S, 110.7° E), 35,962 km up, moving at 3.07 km/s and in sunlight.

What is Zhongxing 6A?

A communications satellite in medium Earth orbit, in space since Sep 4, 2010.

Can I see Zhongxing 6A?

No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Zhongxing 6A, 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
Chinese Academy of Space Technology, Beijing (CASC 5th Acad)
What it is
Communications satellite
Launched
Mass
about 5.1 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
5:36 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
5:36 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
1° S, 110.7° E
Altitude
35,962 km
Speed
3.07 km/s (11,045 km/h)
Course
north
Light
In sunlight
Inclination
4.6°
Orbital period
1,444.4 minutes
Orbits per day
1
This orbit
35,933 to 35,966 km
In shadow
None of this orbit
In view from
Within 7,950 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Nov 8, 2026, 8:04 AM, 9 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 8:04 AM, 9 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Zhongxing 6A, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
No close approach to Zhongxing 6A 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

Zhongxing 6A shares its launch, 2010-042, with 17 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.

BodyWhat it is
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B DEBDebris
CZ-3B 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
Zhongxing 6A35,933 to 35,966 km1,444 minutesabout 5.1 t2010
Hispasat 30W-635,786 to 35,786 km1,436 minutesabout 6.1 t2018
Amazonas Nexus35,786 to 35,786 km1,436 minutesabout 4.1 t2023
ARSAT-135,786 to 35,786 km1,436 minutesabout 3 t2014
Astra 1N35,786 to 35,786 km1,436 minutesabout 5.3 t2011
Hotbird 13F35,786 to 35,786 km1,436 minutesabout 4.5 t2022

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 8:04 AM, 9 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "CHINASAT 6A",
  "OBJECT_ID": "2010-042A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-11-08T08:04:10.412832",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 0.99698312,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00039276,
  "INCLINATION": 4.5927,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 75.3593,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 198.6625,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 6.0128,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 37150,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 5931,
  "BSTAR": 0,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000269,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}