- Navigation satellite
- Military
- NORAD 43002
- 2017-069B
- Medium Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Brazil
Orbit ends over the Timor Sea
In view from you
Nobody watches BEIDOU 3M2 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 3M2, 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.
Summary
Over the Atlantic Ocean LIVE
Where is BEIDOU 3M2?
At 4:09:24 AM UTC BEIDOU 3M2 was over the Atlantic Ocean (16.6° N, 35° W), 21,515 km up, moving at 3.78 km/s and in sunlight.
What is BEIDOU 3M2?
A BeiDou navigation satellite in medium Earth orbit, in space since Nov 5, 2017.
Can I see BEIDOU 3M2?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for BEIDOU 3M2, and nothing here estimates one; receivers on the ground use its signals instead, whenever it is above their horizon.
General
BEIDOU 3M2 is one of the 37 navigation satellites of the BeiDou constellation. See every BeiDou satellite and how many are above you right now.
- Launched
- Known to its operator as
- C20
- Typical altitude
- 21,450 to 21,600 km
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 4:09 AM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 4:09 AM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 16.6° N, 35° W
- Altitude
- 21,515 km
- Speed
- 3.78 km/s (13,612 km/h)
- Course
- north
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 56.8°
- Orbital period
- 773.2 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 1.86
- This orbit
- 21,513 to 21,543 km
- In shadow
- None of this orbit
- In view from
- Within 7,450 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 2, 2026, 1:40 AM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 2, 2026, 1:40 AM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for BEIDOU 3M2, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to BEIDOU 3M2 has been reported publicly in the past thirty days.
From Space-Track’s public conjunction messages; the latest report was issued Nov 2, 2026, 1:53 PM, 13 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
| Constellation | Satellites | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Planes | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BeiDou | 37 | 21,450 to 21,600 km | 773 minutes | — | The China Satellite Navigation Office |
| GPS | 32 | 20,000 to 20,400 km | 718 minutes | 6 | The United States Space Force |
| Galileo | 28 | 23,100 to 23,300 km | 845 minutes | — | EUSPA, the European Union Agency for the Space Programme |
| GLONASS | 24 | 19,050 to 19,200 km | 676 minutes | — | Roscosmos, the Russian State Space Corporation |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 2, 2026, 1:40 AM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "BEIDOU 3M2",
"OBJECT_ID": "2017-069B",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-02T01:40:15.739104",
"MEAN_MOTION": 1.86230422,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.0005428,
"INCLINATION": 56.8164,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 58.5901,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 349.8292,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 10.1566,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 43002,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 6116,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -3.3e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}