- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- OBJECT A
- NORAD 56157
- 2023-048A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over the Pacific Ocean
Orbit ends over the Java Sea
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Yaogan 34-04 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 Yaogan 34-04, 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 too faint for the naked eye. What it is up there for reaches the ground as pictures and measurements, not as a light in the sky.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over the Atlantic Ocean LIVE
Where is Yaogan 34-04?
At 6:46:06 PM UTC Yaogan 34-04 was over the Atlantic Ocean (60° S, 2.7° W), 1,123 km up, moving at 7.29 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Yaogan 34-04?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Mar 31, 2023.
Can I see Yaogan 34-04?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Yaogan 34-04, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- Strategic Support Troops
- State
- China, People's Republic of
- Built by
- Shanghai Academy of Space Technology (CASC 8th Acad)
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Military
- Yes: a defence organisation flies it
- Launched
- Mass
- 500 kg
- Operating
- Yes
- Orbit class
- Low 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
- 6:46 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 6:46 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 60° S, 2.7° W
- Altitude
- 1,123 km
- Speed
- 7.29 km/s (26,230 km/h)
- Course
- south-east
- Light
- In sunlight until 7:03 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 63.4°
- Orbital period
- 107 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 13.45
- This orbit
- 1,028 to 1,148 km
- In shadow
- 25 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,570 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 8:34 AM, 10 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 8:34 AM, 10 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Yaogan 34-04, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Yaogan 34-04 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
Yaogan 34-04 shares its launch, 2023-048, with one other body the catalogue lists in orbit.
| Body | What it is |
|---|---|
| OBJECT B | Satellite |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yaogan 34-04 | 1,028 to 1,148 km | 107 minutes | 500 kg | 2023 |
| Sentinel-6MF | 1,332 to 1,344 km | 112 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2020 |
| Sentinel-6B | 1,332 to 1,344 km | 112 minutes | about 1.2 t | 2025 |
| Sentinel-5P | 826 to 828 km | 101 minutes | 820 kg | 2017 |
| Suomi NPP | 825 to 829 km | 101 minutes | about 2.1 t | 2011 |
| MetOp-SG A1 | 820 to 821 km | 101 minutes | about 4 t | 2025 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 8:34 AM, 10 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "OBJECT A",
"OBJECT_ID": "2023-048A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T08:34:46.164000",
"MEAN_MOTION": 13.45398618,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.00799313,
"INCLINATION": 63.4005,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 88.0417,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 356.702,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 3.3469,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 56157,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 17733,
"BSTAR": -0.000024161752,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": -0.00000105,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}