Live on the globe now: 25 tracked
This layer puts orbiting satellites on the globe and moves them the way orbital mechanics actually does. We pull two-line element sets (TLEs) from CelesTrak's GP catalog for the "stations" group — crewed and uncrewed space stations, with the International Space Station front and centre — and refresh those elements hourly. Between refreshes the server runs the standard SGP4 propagator (via satellite.js) every five seconds, converting each satellite's orbital elements into a live latitude, longitude and altitude. That is why a satellite here doesn't follow a road or a flight path: it traces the ground track of a real orbit, looping the planet roughly every 90 minutes and visibly drifting west on each pass as Earth rotates beneath it. Click any object to inspect its name, NORAD catalog number and current altitude in kilometres. Unlike the aircraft and ship layers, which report observed positions from ground receivers, these points are computed from published orbital elements, so they stay accurate even over oceans and poles where no tracking station can see them. It is one of about 29 live data layers you can switch on over a single interactive Earth.
Data source: CelesTrak
CelesTrak's GP "stations" group — crewed and uncrewed space stations, including the International Space Station (ISS). It is a focused set centred on the ISS rather than the full multi-thousand-object catalog.
From CelesTrak two-line element sets (TLEs) using the standard SGP4 propagation model (satellite.js). TLEs are refreshed hourly and each satellite's position is recomputed server-side every five seconds.
It orbits at roughly 28,000 km/h and circles Earth about every 90 minutes. Because the planet rotates underneath it, each successive ground track shifts west, which is the sweeping pattern you see.
Its name, NORAD catalog ID and current altitude in kilometres, derived from the live SGP4 propagation at the moment you inspect it.