OVERWATCH.EARTH
initializing planetary telemetry…
About

Overhead and curious: orbit, attention and life

The curiosity group is everything that doesn't fit a category but is irresistible to watch. Tracked satellites and the ISS are propagated live from CelesTrak orbital elements, the full SpaceX Starlink constellation streams overhead, and upcoming rocket launches sit at their pads. NASA's Deep Space Network shows which dish is talking to which spacecraft right now. Down on Earth, live Wikipedia edits map the world's shifting attention, tens of thousands of public webcams open a window onto real places, and citizen-science wildlife sightings from iNaturalist and eBird plot life as people report it. Enable the whole group and the globe becomes a planetarium and a scrapbook at once — orbital mechanics above, human curiosity below. Click anything to inspect it, often with a photo or live feed and a link out. One of four theme groups; solo any layer or view them all on the homepage.

What's in the curiosity group?

Satellites & the ISS, the Starlink constellation, rocket launches, NASA Deep Space Network, live Wikipedia edits, public webcams, and wildlife/bird sightings — each a toggleable layer, shown together here.

Where does the data come from?

CelesTrak (satellites/Starlink), Launch Library 2 (launches), NASA DSN, Wikimedia EventStreams (edits), Windy (webcams), iNaturalist and eBird (wildlife). All open or public feeds.

Are the satellites real positions?

Yes — they're propagated in your browser from current orbital elements (TLEs) using SGP4, the same model used for satellite tracking, so the positions move in real time.