What is really
above your head?
Thousands of satellites circle Earth, from crewed space stations to navigation and weather spacecraft. Orbit Atlas turns a dated set of public orbital elements into an interactive view of their predicted paths.
How to use the satellite explorer
- Search for a satellite name or NORAD catalog number. Try ISS, Landsat, NOAA or a navigation satellite.
- Select a result to see its predicted altitude, speed, position and orbital path. Drag the globe to rotate it, or use the zoom controls.
- Use mission and altitude filters to compare different kinds of orbits. A category is a name-based aid, not proof that a satellite is operational.
- Open Your sky, choose a city or enter coordinates, and calculate upcoming passes. Coordinates are processed in your browser. Location permission is requested only if you choose the location button.
Predictions, not live telemetry
The moving dots are mathematical estimates. The SGP4 propagation model uses orbital elements describing an orbit near a particular epoch. It cannot know about later maneuvers, unexpected drag or reentry. A clock advancing on screen does not make the source data live.
The included snapshot was retrieved on 10 November 2026 at 09:49 UTC. It contains 6,206 records from the CelesTrak active GP refresh: non-Starlink objects and every twentieth Starlink record. This is a selected subset, not a count of all objects in space. No OMPub baseline or analyst catalog is bundled. Data does not refresh automatically.
Each object's element age is shown. When the median epoch is more than seven days old, the globe switches to explicitly historical time. Pass predictions exclude stale elements. Do not use this site for navigation, collision avoidance, spacecraft operations or precise observing commitments.
What the lines mean
The green orbit line estimates one revolution in the current Earth-fixed frame. The cyan ground track projects future positions onto Earth's rotating surface. Neither line is a trail measured by a sensor.
Low Earth orbit is generally below 2,000 km. Navigation spacecraft often occupy medium Earth orbit. Geostationary spacecraft orbit near 35,786 km above the equator; the explorer's altitude bands are approximate filters and do not establish that an orbit is truly geostationary.
Can I see a satellite tonight?
A satellite can be above your horizon but invisible. Your sky estimates passes higher than 10 degrees for a bounded selection of targets. Favorable light means the satellite is sunlit while the observer's Sun is below −6 degrees. Brightness, weather, terrain, trees and light pollution still matter. Results are opportunities, never visibility guarantees.
Sources, rights and credits
- Basic SSA orbital elements and satellite catalog information: USSPACECOM / Space-Track.org, via CelesTrak. Space-Track's Redistribution of Basic SSA Information section grants blanket redistribution conditioned on appropriate citation. CelesTrak's usage policy governs retrieval. This site serves a saved subset and makes no visitor requests to CelesTrak.
- Earth day and night maps: Solar System Scope, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. Original 2K daymap and nightmap downloaded 10 November 2026. Files are unchanged except for filenames. Globe lighting and presentation are generated by the application. No endorsement is implied.
- Rendering and calculations: Three.js, satellite.js, React, React DOM and Lucide. Open-source license notices.
Privacy
No account is required. This build includes no analytics, advertising trackers or external font requests. Searches and pass calculations run locally in your browser. The web host can still record ordinary access logs. External source links follow their own privacy policies.