In 1961 the German weather ship WBS 11 Hessen was renamed 'Kitak'.

[1] The island is located on the western side of the entrance of the Sermilik Fjord.

There is a sheltered bay in the NW side of Kitak that is reportedly a good anchorage for ocean-going vessels.

[3] Kitak is the largest and easternmost island of a compact cluster of coastal islands, islets and rocks extending for 14 km from the easternmost point of Kitak to the 51 m high islet of Igssalik in the west; 2.2 kilometres (1 mile) long Orssuiagssuaq, where formerly a LORAN station was located, is the southernmost island.

[4] The nearest inhabited settlement is Tasiilaq, the most populous community on the eastern coast and the seventh-largest town in Greenland, located on Ammassalik Island on the other side of the fjord about 40 km to the east-northeast.