YAOGAN-40 04A

MilitaryLEOPolarChina

YAOGAN-40 04A is a military satellite, as listed in Jonathan McDowell's GCAT catalogue, with ownership listed as China in CelesTrak's catalogue, currently in low Earth orbit, around 771 km altitude. It completes one orbit of Earth roughly every 101 minutes at an inclination of 86.0°. It was launched in 2026. Track its live position and see when it passes over your location on azmth.

Orbital data

NORAD ID: 100823
COSPAR ID: 2026-222A
Type: Military
Orbit: LEO
Perigee (lowest): 771 km
Apogee (highest): 795 km
Inclination: 86.00°
Orbital period: 101 min
Launch year: 2026
Owner (CelesTrak): China

Data updated: 11 November 2026 · source data refreshed every 2 hours from CelesTrak

Who operates it

ChinaLIVEActive

Signals intelligence

GCAT lists it as Yaogan 40-04-01.

Official description

“The Yaogan-40 group 04 satellites are mainly used to carry out electromagnetic environment detection and related technology tests.”

Xinhua, 24 Sep 2026

azmth's translation · Show original

遥感四十号04组卫星主要用于开展电磁环境探测及相关技术试验。

Independent assessment

GCAT classes it as a military satellite for signals intelligence and records it as active (2 Nov 2026).

Data: GCAT · CC BY 4.0 Class, mission and status adapted from GCAT by Jonathan McDowell, CC BY 4.0, data update 2 Nov 2026.

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About LEO orbit

Low Earth Orbit. Up to 2,000 km altitude. Where most satellites live including the ISS (~420 km), Starlink (~470 km), and Earth observation. Orbital period roughly 90 minutes.