- Navigation satellite
- Military
- BD-21
- NORAD 41315
- 2016-006A
- Medium Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Pacific Ocean
Orbit ends over the Atlantic Ocean
In view from you
Nobody watches Beidou DW 21 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 21, 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 Cuba LIVE
Where is Beidou DW 21?
At 4:54:18 PM UTC Beidou DW 21 was over Cuba (20.8° N, 76.9° W), 21,534 km up, moving at 3.78 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Beidou DW 21?
A navigation satellite in medium Earth orbit, in space since Feb 1, 2016.
Can I see Beidou DW 21?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Beidou DW 21, 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
- Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites, SIMIT
- What it is
- Navigation satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- about 1 t
- Operating
- No: its regular operations have ended
- 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, 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
- 20.8° N, 76.9° W
- Altitude
- 21,534 km
- Speed
- 3.78 km/s (13,604 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 56.8°
- Orbital period
- 773.2 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 1.86
- This orbit
- 21,520 to 21,536 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,450 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 9:35 AM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 9:35 AM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Beidou DW 21, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Beidou DW 21 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.
Launched with
Beidou DW 21 shares its launch, 2016-006, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| YZ-1 R/B | Rocket body |
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.
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 7, 2026, 9:35 AM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "BD-21",
"OBJECT_ID": "2016-006A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T09:35:01.167648",
"MEAN_MOTION": 1.86230853,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00030381,
"INCLINATION": 56.8361,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 58.9347,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 282.7779,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 77.1725,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 41315,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 7326,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -7.9e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}