Science
TIANHUI 6A
Chinese Military Stereo Mapping Satellite · CAST / PLA Navigation and Survey Bureau
Right now
LiveIt moves every second. See exactly where it is — worked out from its orbit, on your own device — on the live 3D globe.
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Lead satellite of a sixth-generation Tianhui pair, launched in 2023 as China's mapping satellite program continued its steady generational cadence. As successive Tianhui generations proliferate, the PLA has built one of the most comprehensive and continuously updated topographic intelligence databases of any military in the world — an asset whose value only compounds as more data accumulates over more of the Earth's surface, refreshed more frequently, in more weather conditions.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Low Earth Orbitcan appear as a fast-moving star at dawn or dusk
- Altitude
- 554–557 mi (891–896 km)
- Inclination
- 99.0°
- One orbit
- 102.7 minutes14.0 orbits a day
- NORAD ID
- 55836
- Int’l designator
- 2023-030A
- Launched
- 2023
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 22 Sep 2026.
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