Live on the globe now: 10,495 tracked
This layer isolates the SpaceX Starlink constellation from the wider satellite field and shows it on the 3D globe: thousands of broadband satellites drawn at their computed positions, the dense shells in low Earth orbit and the orbital planes they fly in. Click any object to inspect its catalog number, orbit and pass details.
The positions come from CelesTrak (celestrak.org), which republishes GP (general perturbations) orbital element sets for the Starlink group. Those elements originate with the US Space Force's 18th Space Defense Squadron, which fits tracking observations from the Space Surveillance Network into SGP4 mean elements. They are not live GPS fixes from the spacecraft — instead each satellite carries an element set with an epoch, and the globe propagates it forward with the SGP4 model to place the dot where the satellite should be right now. CelesTrak refreshes the element sets through the day as new fits are published, and the page re-propagates so the constellation keeps drifting in real time.
Starlink is the largest single constellation in orbit, which is why it gets its own layer rather than living inside the general satellites view. This is one of about 29 live layers you can switch between on the same interactive Earth.
Data source: CelesTrak
From CelesTrak's Starlink group element sets. CelesTrak republishes GP/OMM data produced by the US Space Force's 18th Space Defense Squadron, which derives the orbits by fitting Space Surveillance Network observations into SGP4 mean elements.
No. These are published orbital elements with an epoch, not onboard GPS fixes. The globe runs the SGP4 propagator on each element set to compute where the satellite is now, so positions are accurate predictions rather than live telemetry from the spacecraft.
The satellites layer covers many constellations and tracked objects at once. This layer filters to just the SpaceX Starlink group, so you see the constellation's shells and orbital planes on their own without the rest of the catalog.
Several thousand — the count tracks whatever CelesTrak currently lists in the Starlink group, which grows with launches and drops as satellites deorbit. CelesTrak updates the element sets through the day and the globe re-propagates them continuously.