- Navigation satellite
- Military
- BD-20
- NORAD 40938
- 2015-053A
- 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 Beidou DW 20 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 Beidou DW 20, 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 far too high and too faint for the naked eye. What you notice of it is a position fix, and the card above says whether it is above your horizon to give you one.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the People's Republic of China LIVE
Where is Beidou DW 20?
At 4:54:22 PM UTC Beidou DW 20 was over the People's Republic of China (28.8° N, 107.1° E), 35,619 km up, moving at 3.09 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Beidou DW 20?
A navigation satellite in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, in space since Sep 29, 2015.
Can I see Beidou DW 20?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Beidou DW 20, and nothing here estimates one; receivers on the ground use its signals instead, whenever it is above their horizon.
General
- Operator
- China National Space Administration
- State
- China, People's Republic of
- Built by
- Chinese Academy of Space Technology, Beijing (CASC 5th Acad)
- What it is
- Navigation satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 1.2 t
- Operating
- Yes
- 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
- 4:54 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 4:54 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 28.8° N, 107.1° E
- Altitude
- 35,619 km
- Speed
- 3.09 km/s (11,113 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 49°
- Orbital period
- 1,436.1 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 1
- This orbit
- 35,514 to 36,059 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,940 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 4, 2026, 7:57 PM, 3 days old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 4, 2026, 7:57 PM, 3 days old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Beidou DW 20, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Beidou DW 20 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.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 4, 2026, 7:57 PM, 3 days old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "BD-20",
"OBJECT_ID": "2015-053A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-04T19:57:53.392608",
"MEAN_MOTION": 1.00271753,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00645919,
"INCLINATION": 49.0122,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 257.0979,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 192.4763,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 350.4848,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 40938,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 4076,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000181,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}