- Earth-watching satellite
- GEO-KOMPSAT-2A
- NORAD 43823
- 2018-100A
- Geostationary
Current orbit
View on live mapOne orbit takes a day, as long as the Earth takes to turn, so Cheollian 2A keeps above 128.2° E of the equator and never crosses the sky.
It never rises or sets
Cheollian 2A turns with the Earth, standing over one longitude of the equator. From anywhere it can be seen at all it is up day and night, in the same direction, so there is no pass to wait for.
No brightness has been published for Cheollian 2A, 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 wait for: it never crosses the sky. From the half of the Earth it stands over it keeps the same point day and night, and from the other half it never rises at all.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Molucca Sea LIVE
Where is Cheollian 2A?
At 5:36:22 PM UTC Cheollian 2A was over the Molucca Sea (0° S, 128.2° E), 35,783 km up, standing over one longitude of the equator and in sunlight.
What is Cheollian 2A?
A satellite that watches the Earth in geostationary orbit, in space since Dec 4, 2018.
Can I see Cheollian 2A?
No, not with the naked eye, and it never crosses the sky: Cheollian 2A stands over 128.2° E of the equator; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- Korea Aerospace Research Institute
- State
- Great Han People's Nation
- Built by
- Korea Aerospace Research Institute
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 3.5 t
- Operating
- Yes
- Orbit class
- Geostationary
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
- 0° S, 128.2° E
- Altitude
- 35,783 km
- Speed
- 3.08 km/s (11,070 km/h)
- Course
- Stands over 128.2° E
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 0°
- Orbital period
- 1,436.1 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 1
- This orbit
- 35,782 to 35,793 km
- In view from
- Within 7,940 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 5:48 AM, 11 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 5:48 AM, 11 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Cheollian 2A, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Cheollian 2A 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
Cheollian 2A shares its launch, 2018-100, with 2 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| GSAT 11 | Communications satellite |
| ARIANE 5 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.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheollian 2A | 35,782 to 35,793 km | 1,436 minutes | about 3.5 t | 2018 |
| GOES-19 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5 t | 2024 |
| Meteosat-12 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 3.8 t | 2022 |
| Meteosat-11 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 2 t | 2015 |
| GOES-16 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.2 t | 2016 |
| GOES-17 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.2 t | 2018 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 5:48 AM, 11 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "GEO-KOMPSAT-2A",
"OBJECT_ID": "2018-100A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T05:48:51.441984",
"MEAN_MOTION": 1.00270844,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00013168,
"INCLINATION": 0.0188,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 63.2364,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 69.2364,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 130.4376,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 43823,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 2907,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}