How many QZSS satellites are actually flying?
Search for Michibiki and you will meet the phrase seven-satellite constellation. As of September 2026, five are operating. The official site still says only that the system is “being developed toward a seven-satellite constellation”. Here is what happened, and what is still missing, in order.
Five are operating today
A Cabinet Office briefing dated March 2026 lists QZSS as operating with five satellites, with 5-10 m accuracy, or up to 6 cm when centimetre-level augmentation is used.
The same table lists GPS (US) 31, GLONASS (Russia) 24, Galileo (Europe) 27, BeiDou (China) 45, NavIC (India) 4.
QZSS is small not because it lags, but because it is regional: built for Japan and the surrounding area rather than the whole globe. NavIC is small for the same reason.
22 December 2025: the fifth satellite was lost
H3 flight 8 lifted off from Tanegashima on 22 December 2025 and failed. QZS-5 was lost.
In a progress report on 20 January 2026, JAXA said an abnormal acceleration occurred at fairing separation, 225 seconds after lift-off; part of the satellite mounting structure is likely to have been damaged and the satellite to have separated early. Pressure in the second stage liquid hydrogen tank fell, and the second burn of the second-stage engine failed to start properly and stopped early.
11 August 2026: the seventh reached orbit
After repeated delays for approaching typhoons, H3 flight 9 lifted off at 04:23 on 11 August 2026 carrying QZS-7, and succeeded.
QZS-7 goes into a quasi-geostationary orbit: inclination and eccentricity are given small non-zero values, so it appears to drift slowly rather than hang still. QZS-6, launched on H3 flight 5 in February 2025, sits in a true geostationary orbit.
It still will not be seven
When QZS-7 enters service in February or March 2027, the constellation becomes six. That is one short of the planned seven, because the fifth has not been replaced.
The Cabinet Office states that coverage will be smaller and accuracy lower inside Japan, particularly in the north, compared with a seven-satellite constellation, but that revising the placement of the satellites in quasi-zenith orbit allows some improvement even with six.
Why seven, and not fewer
Positioning requires at least four satellites in view at once: three to solve for position, one more to solve the receiver clock offset.
Keeping four over Japan at all times takes seven satellites in the figure-of-eight quasi-zenith orbit, because each one is only over Japan for part of its orbit and they must hand over to each other.
Until then, QZSS cannot complete a fix on its own; it is used together with GPS and Galileo. That is less a daily inconvenience than a continued dependence on systems operated by others.
The one-metre smartphone plan slipped
JAXA is demonstrating ASNAV on satellites 5, 6 and 7, aiming at metre-level positioning on an ordinary smartphone with no special receiver.
Only QZS-5 carried the transmitter for inter-satellite ranging. With it lost, the demonstration has moved back. Practical service is targeted in about three years, at roughly 1.6 m at that stage.
Eleven satellites in the late 2030s
Even with seven, a single failure breaks the always-four condition. An eleven-satellite constellation is planned to absorb that, with service expected in the late 2030s; a successor to QZS-3 and a QZS-8 are already in development.
There is also work on making the satellites thinner so that two can share one rocket. All Michibiki satellites so far use Mitsubishi Electric's DS2000 bus.
Where Michibiki is right now
A count of satellites does not tell you how many you can see from where you stand. A satellite blocked by a building or a ridge is not available to you.
KUON ORBIT shows the current position of positioning satellites, Michibiki included. KUON SKY predicts, for a point you choose, how many satellites will be visible and how they will be spread (DOP).
Sources, and the limits of this page
Cabinet Office QZSS site (qzss.go.jp), JAXA pre-launch briefing material (5 August 2026), JAXA report on the H3 flight 8 failure (20 January 2026), and press coverage.
Figures and dates are as of September 2026. The number in service will change. Check the Cabinet Office site for the current primary source.