- Communications satellite
- SJ-23
- NORAD 55131
- 2023-002A
- Geostationary
Current orbit
View on live mapOne orbit takes a day, as long as the Earth takes to turn, so Shi Jian 23 keeps above 31.3° E of the equator and never crosses the sky.
It never rises or sets
Shi Jian 23 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 Shi Jian 23, 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
- Rendezvous
Shi Jian 23 came up beside SJ-23 adapter, from Jan 15, 2023, as public sources state. Its sources
- Rendezvous
LDPE 3A came up beside Shi Jian 23, from October 2024, as public sources state. Its sources
- Rendezvous
Shi Jian 23 came up beside WGS SV-7, from May 7, 2026, as public sources state. Its sources
Summary
Over Tanzania LIVE
Where is Shi Jian 23?
At 6:46:06 PM UTC Shi Jian 23 was over Tanzania (3.9° S, 31.3° E), 35,842 km up, standing over one longitude of the equator and in sunlight.
What is Shi Jian 23?
A communications satellite in geostationary orbit, in space since Jan 8, 2023.
Can I see Shi Jian 23?
No, not with the naked eye, and it never crosses the sky: Shi Jian 23 stands over 31.3° E of the equator; the dishes and receivers on the ground use its signals instead.
General
- Operator
- Strategic Support Troops
- 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 t
- Operating
- 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
- 6:46 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:46 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 3.9° S, 31.3° E
- Altitude
- 35,842 km
- Speed
- 3.07 km/s (11,063 km/h)
- Course
- Stands over 31.3° E
- Light
- In sunlight
- Inclination
- 4.1°
- Orbital period
- 1,439.4 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 1
- This orbit
- 35,836 to 35,869 km
- In view from
- Within 7,950 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 7, 2026, 6:24 PM, 1 day old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 7, 2026, 6:24 PM, 1 day old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Shi Jian 23, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Shi Jian 23 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
Shi Jian 23 shares its launch, 2023-002, with 2 other bodies the catalogue lists in orbit.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shi Jian 23 | 35,836 to 35,869 km | 1,439 minutes | about 5 t | 2023 |
| Hispasat 30W-6 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 6.1 t | 2018 |
| Amazonas Nexus | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2023 |
| ARSAT-1 | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 3 t | 2014 |
| Astra 1N | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 5.3 t | 2011 |
| Hotbird 13F | 35,786 to 35,786 km | 1,436 minutes | about 4.5 t | 2022 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 7, 2026, 6:24 PM, 1 day old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "SJ-23",
"OBJECT_ID": "2023-002A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-07T18:24:42.922944",
"MEAN_MOTION": 1.00040667,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.0003869,
"INCLINATION": 4.0822,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 76.4403,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 228.3432,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 50.4856,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 55131,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 1394,
"BSTAR": 0,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00000148,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}