Daily brief · Saturday, 31 October 2026 (UTC)
31 Oct: A Chinese military satellite is closing on an Italian satellite, a Chinese military satellite is closing on a Brazilian satellite and China's military satellites cluster over the fighting in Iran, Ethiopia, India, Mexico and Pakistan in the next 24 hours.
Top stories
- Military satellite closing on another country's
In nearly the same orbit and getting closer. Most approaches are drift; the pair page shows the history.
- Military satellite closing on another country's
In nearly the same orbit and getting closer. Most approaches are drift; the pair page shows the history.
Over conflict zones in the next 24 hours
14 or more of one country's working military satellites, from different launches, over places where fighting was recorded this year, at once. Passes are fixed by orbits days ahead, so a cluster is usually a coincidence.
Closing on another country's satellite
5In nearly the same orbit as another country's satellite, and getting closer, with at least one of the two still working.
Military satellites that changed orbit
5Confirmed by the next public orbit update.
Geostationary relocations
1Working satellites 36,000 km up that left their slot or stopped at a new one, from their daily positions. One stopping beside another country's satellite is named.
Routine
- 7 pairs of one country's satellites drifting closer (COSMOS, GLONASS and FALCONSAT-6).
- 4 pairs of satellites no longer working drifting closer.
- 21 satellites that aren't military changed orbit.
- Nothing new: possible rendezvous, shadowing, military satellites leaving public tracking, breakups and countries busier than usual.
Also
- Starlink Group 15-18 · Falcon 9 Block 5 · Launch Successful · SpaceX · Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA · commercial
- 28 new objects catalogued, 27 of them Starlink.
- New object catalogued from earlier launch 2026-227: FLOCK 4J 11
- STARLINK-1283 predicted to re-enter around 18:29 UTC (US), uncertain by hours.
Built 1 Nov, 00:30 UTC from the event log: what overhead24 detected that day, in its own words. Sources: Space-Track.org (USSPACECOM) (orbit data and re-entries); GCAT (J. McDowell, planet4589.org/space/gcat) (owners and military class, CC BY 4.0); Launch Library 2 (The Space Devs) (launches); UCDP (where fighting was recorded, CC BY 4.0). Worked out from public orbit data, accurate to a few kilometres and less the older the data. Not for collision avoidance, navigation or targeting. Satellites pass over every country: being overhead says nothing about what a satellite is doing.
Earlier briefs
2026-11-022026-11-012026-10-302026-10-292026-10-282026-10-272026-10-262026-10-252026-10-242026-10-232026-10-222026-10-212026-10-202026-10-19