Satcom Status Tracker

Metric	Value	Copy
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#	Name	NORAD	Status	Orbit	Altitude	Epoch age	Copy
{{ row.rank }}	{{ row.name }}	{{ row.id }}	{{ row.status }}	{{ row.orbit }}	{{ row.altitude }}	{{ row.age }}

Communication satellites are spacecraft that relay signals between ground sites, and their orbits shape coverage, latency, and when a link is even possible. Use this satellite orbit status tracker to turn published orbit snapshots into a quick readout of where a satellite sits and how recent that snapshot is.

You provide a satellite name, a constellation keyword, or a catalog number, and the page returns the closest matches and a compact status summary. For a selected match you can see an estimated altitude, an orbit type, orbital tilt, and a freshness estimate for the orbit record.

Suppose you are preparing a ground test for a broadband payload and you want to sanity check that a candidate spacecraft is in low orbit and has a recently updated orbit record. Search for the spacecraft, pick the right entry, and compare its altitude and inclination against nearby siblings in the same constellation.

Orbit records can be stale, duplicated, or published for planned spacecraft long before launch, so treat the status label as a clue rather than a promise. A matching pattern does not prove a satellite is operational, and the most useful signal is usually the combination of freshness and a plausible orbit. If your query contains sensitive program names, consider searching by catalog number instead.

If you need precise ground tracks, visibility windows, or attitude details, you will want a full orbit propagation workflow. For quick triage, reporting, and keeping constellations straight, this summary view is often enough to move to the next step with confidence.

Technical Details:

Satellite orbits are often shared as a Two-Line Element (TLE) set tied to a North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) catalog ID. This tool reads a TLE record and focuses on the parts that are most helpful for quick comparisons, the epoch timestamp, mean motion, inclination, and eccentricity.

Mean motion is the average number of revolutions per day implied by the published orbit model, and it correlates strongly with orbital size and period. The tool converts mean motion into an approximate circular orbit altitude using Keplerian relationships, which is best interpreted as a sorting and sanity check value rather than a precision orbit solution.

To keep results readable, the tool buckets altitude into broad orbit classes, Low Earth Orbit, Medium Earth Orbit, a geosynchronous belt band, and High Earth Orbit. These labels are based on fixed altitude cutoffs, so values close to a boundary can flip classes after rounding.

Freshness is derived from the TLE epoch compared with the current clock, then expressed as minutes, hours, days, or future time when the epoch is ahead of now. Optional status metadata can be overlaid from Satellite Networked Open Ground Station (SatNOGS) records, which may be missing for some spacecraft.

Processing pipeline

Trim the search text and treat a 3 to 6 digit value as a NORAD catalog ID.
Request matching TLE records from the public TLE API and deduplicate by satellite ID.
Parse TLE line 2 to extract inclination, eccentricity, and mean motion.
Compute orbital period and approximate altitude using Earth constants.
Optionally fetch SatNOGS metadata and map status values into user friendly labels.
Filter by maximum epoch age and optional active only and decayed entry rules.
Sort results and apply the final cap after sorting.

Core equations

\begin{array}{rcl} ω & = & n \times \frac{2 π}{86400} \\ a & = & {\frac{μ}{ω^{2}}}^{1 / 3} \\ h & = & a - R \\ P & = & \frac{1440}{n} minutes \end{array}

Symbols and units used in the calculations
Symbol	Meaning	Unit/Datatype	Source
`n`	Mean motion	rev/day	Input (TLE line 2)
`ω`	Angular rate derived from mean motion	rad/s	Derived
`μ`	Earth standard gravitational parameter	km³/s²	Constant
`R`	Earth mean radius used by the tool	km	Constant
`a`	Approximate semi major axis	km	Derived
`h`	Approximate altitude above Earth radius	km	Derived
`P`	Orbital period	min	Derived
`i`	Inclination	deg	Input (TLE line 2)
`e`	Eccentricity parsed from TLE	unitless	Input (TLE line 2)
`t_epoch`	TLE epoch timestamp	ISO 8601	Input (TLE record)

Worked example (altitude from mean motion)

Assume a TLE reports mean motion n of 15.5 rev/day. The tool constants are μ = 398600.4418 km³/s² and R = 6371 km.

\begin{array}{rcl} ω & = & 15.5 \times \frac{2 π}{86400} = 0.00112719 \end{array}

\begin{array}{rcl} a & = & {\frac{398600.4418}{{0.00112719}^{2}}}^{1 / 3} = 6794.86 km \end{array}

\begin{array}{rcl} h & = & 6794.86 - 6371 = 423.86 km \end{array}

\begin{array}{rcl} P & = & \frac{1440}{15.5} = 92.90 min \end{array}

With h = 423.86 km, the orbit class is LEO because the altitude is below 2000 km.

Interpretation bands

Orbit class bands used by the tool
Orbit class	Lower bound (km)	Upper bound (km)	Interpretation	Action cue
LEO	0	2000	Low Earth Orbit, typically fast moving relative to ground observers.	Expect short passes and frequent geometry changes.
MEO	2000	34986	Medium Earth Orbit, longer periods and broader footprints.	Use for broad coverage comparisons and constellation grouping.
GEO belt	34986	36586	Near geosynchronous altitude within a fixed belt width.	Sanity check for stationary coverage expectations.
HEO	36586	∞	High Earth Orbit outside the geosynchronous band.	Verify the mission type and look for highly elliptical signatures.
Unknown	—	—	Missing or invalid mean motion prevented an altitude estimate.	Inspect the raw TLE text for completeness.

Note that the GEO band is defined as 35786 km plus or minus 800 km. Boundary flips can happen when values are rounded for display.

Status mapping (SatNOGS overlay)

Status labels derived from SatNOGS values
Label shown	SatNOGS value	Meaning	Practical read
Active	`alive`	Listed as operational in the SatNOGS database.	Good candidate for service checks and monitoring.
Planned	`future`	Announced or expected spacecraft entry.	Expect incomplete orbit history and changing records.
Non-operational	`dead`	Listed as no longer operational.	Do not assume live service even if an orbit record exists.
Re-entered	`re-entered` or `decayed`	Reported reentry or decay flag is present.	Useful for historical checks, usually not an active target.
TLE only	overlay disabled	Only TLE derived metrics are shown.	Use orbit values, not health status, for triage.
Unknown	`unknown` or missing	Status is unavailable or unrecognized.	Rely on orbit freshness and cross check other sources.

Variables and parameters

User controlled parameters and their bounds
Parameter	Meaning	Unit/Datatype	Typical range	Sensitivity	Notes
`query`	Search text for name, keyword, or NORAD ID	string	1+ chars	High	Trimmed; a 3 to 6 digit value triggers an ID lookup.
`preset`	Preset that fills common constellation searches	enum	custom, starlink, oneweb, iridium, …	Medium	On load, the preset can populate the query unless a query parameter was supplied.
`max_results`	Maximum satellites kept after sorting	integer	1 to 40	Medium	Rounded and clamped to a safe cap.
`page`	Search page offset for the TLE search endpoint	integer	1 to 200	Medium	Useful when exploring beyond the newest matches.
`max_age_days`	Discard entries older than this epoch age	integer	0 to 3650	High	Set 0 to keep everything regardless of age.
`sort_by`	Result ordering applied before the cap	enum	epoch, altitude, inclination, period	Medium	Epoch sorting uses newest first.
`include_satnogs`	Enable SatNOGS overlay metadata	0 or 1	0 to 1	Medium	Enabling triggers one metadata request per result.
`only_active`	Filter out entries marked dead or reentered	0 or 1	0 to 1	High	Requires the SatNOGS overlay.
`allow_decayed`	Allow decayed or future entries to remain	0 or 1	0 to 1	High	Requires the SatNOGS overlay.

Constants used

Constants and fixed thresholds used by the tool
Constant	Value	Unit	Source	Notes
`EARTH_MU`	398600.4418	km³/s²	Constant	Used in the Keplerian altitude approximation.
`EARTH_RADIUS_KM`	6371	km	Constant	Subtracted from semi major axis to estimate altitude.
`GEO_ALTITUDE`	35786	km	Threshold	Center of the geosynchronous belt band.
`GEO_BELT_HALF_WIDTH`	800	km	Threshold	Defines the belt as 35786 km plus or minus 800 km.
`FETCH_TIMEOUT`	12000	ms	Constant	Abort window applied to each fetch request.
`AUTO_TRACK_DELAY`	250	ms	Constant	Auto starts a query shortly after load when a query exists.

Units, precision, and rounding

Altitude is displayed in kilometers, rounded to 0 decimals in tables and 2 decimals in the chart.
Inclination is displayed in degrees, rounded to 2 decimals in tables and 1 decimal in the header badge.
Mean motion is displayed in revolutions per day, rounded to 6 decimals.
Orbital period is displayed in minutes, rounded to 2 decimals.
Eccentricity is displayed as a unitless fraction, rounded to 6 decimals after parsing.
Epoch timestamps are displayed as ISO 8601 strings for exports and localized strings in the status table.
Epoch age labels switch units at 15 minutes, 24 hours, and 1 day boundaries.

Validation and bounds

Input validation rules enforced by the tool
Field	Type	Min	Max	Step/Pattern	Error text
Search query	text	—	—	`^\d{3,6}$` treated as NORAD ID	Enter a satellite name or NORAD ID to search.
Result cap	number	1	40	step 1	—
TLE freshness	number	0	3650	step 1	—
TLE page offset	number	1	200	step 1	—
No matches	state	—	—	empty results set	No satellites found for that query.
Filtered out	state	—	—	filters remove all rows	No entries matched after applying the filters.
Fetch failure	state	—	—	network or timeout	Unable to fetch satellite data right now.

Inputs and outputs

Data inputs and outputs supported by the tool
Input	Accepted families	Output	Encoding/Precision	Rounding
Search text	Name fragments, constellation keywords, NORAD ID	Ranked matches list and a selected summary	Unicode text, trimmed	—
TLE record	JSON from the TLE API	Derived metrics and a 3 line TLE text block	Line 2 token parse	Fixed decimals per metric
SatNOGS metadata	Optional JSON overlay	Status label, operator, countries, flags	Mapped categorical values	—
Export payload	In memory results set	Formatted JSON with ISO timestamps	Pretty printed JSON	Values as stored

Networking and storage behavior

TLE data is requested from tle.ivanstanojevic.me using JSON responses and cache: no-store.
When the query looks like a NORAD ID, the tool attempts a direct ID lookup before a keyword search.
SatNOGS overlay data, when enabled, is requested from a relative endpoint shaped like /api/satnogs/satellites/{norad}.
Each request is guarded by a 12 second abort timeout.
No writes to localStorage or sessionStorage are present in this package.
On load, a query URL parameter is recognized to prevent presets from overwriting the initial search.

Performance and determinism

The result set is capped at 40 entries, so sorting is small and typically completes instantly.
With overlay enabled, up to one metadata request is made per entry in the capped set.
Given the same upstream responses, derived metrics are deterministic for the same inputs.
Upstream data changes and clock time directly affect freshness labels and the newest first sort.

Security considerations

All external responses should be treated as untrusted input, even when displayed as read only text.
Syntax highlighted JSON is rendered as HTML, so safe escaping in the highlighter is important.
Download features rely on data URLs and generated blobs, so large payloads can stress memory on older devices.
Network environments that rewrite responses can return HTML instead of JSON, which triggers fetch failures.

Assumptions and limitations

Heads-up Altitude is inferred from mean motion and is only an approximation.
Inclination and eccentricity are parsed from TLE line 2 tokens and depend on correct tokenization.
Orbit class cutoffs are fixed and do not account for mission specifics or station keeping.
Freshness reflects the epoch timestamp, not necessarily the last time the spacecraft was observed.
Overlay status depends on SatNOGS coverage and may be missing or partially available.
Filtering for active only excludes SatNOGS values dead and re-entered and any decayed flags.
When overlay is disabled, status is always TLE only and should not be read as health.
Results are limited to what the upstream TLE search returns for the chosen page and cap.
The tool does not propagate orbits to compute passes, ground tracks, or look angles.

Edge cases and error sources

Non ASCII characters in satellite names can change search matching expectations.
Unicode normalization and grapheme clusters can affect visually identical queries with different code points.
Missing or malformed TLE line 2 tokens produce NaN and lead to Unknown orbit class.
Signed zero and denormals in floating point math can surface near boundaries, though formatting usually hides them.
Rounding ties can push a value across a class cutoff when the displayed precision is low.
Floating point drift can accumulate when values are re rounded for tables and charts.
Race conditions can occur if rapid queries overlap, although the UI prevents a second fetch while loading.
Stale cache effects are reduced by no-store, but intermediate proxies can still serve older responses.
IPv6 compression and resolver quirks can break connectivity in some networks, which appears as timeouts.
Wildcard DNS can redirect API hosts to captive portals that return HTML, which fails JSON parsing.
Trailing slashes and URL rewriting in corporate proxies can change endpoint routing and cause unexpected errors.
Non convergent roots are not used here, so altitude failures come from invalid inputs, not iterative solvers.
PRNG caveats do not apply because no random number generation is used in this package.

Scientific and standards backing

The altitude approximation follows Kepler's third law using a fixed Earth gravitational parameter and radius. TLE sets are commonly intended for use with the SGP4 orbit model, even though this tool only extracts and transforms a subset of fields. Time exports use ISO 8601 timestamps, and numeric behavior follows IEEE 754 as implemented by the JavaScript runtime.

Privacy and compliance

Search terms are sent to the data sources to fetch orbit records and optional metadata, and results are kept in memory for the current session, so avoid entering personal or confidential identifiers.

Step-by-Step Guide:

Satellite orbit snapshots can tell you whether you have the right spacecraft and whether its published orbit looks current enough for a quick planning decision.

Enter a Satellite query using a name, keyword, or a NORAD catalog ID.
Pick a preset if you want a sensible starting point for a common constellation.
Set the Result cap to keep comparisons focused, especially on small screens.
Optionally enable the Health overlay to add registry status, operator, and country.
If you enable the overlay, you can filter to active only to remove retired entries.
Use Freshness days to discard older orbit epochs when you need recent snapshots.
Review the status summary, then compare matches by altitude, orbit class, and epoch age.
Open the orbit chart to spot outliers and confirm you selected the correct target.

Example workflow

Search for a constellation keyword, keep 10 results, and set freshness to 30 days. If the selected entry shows a low altitude, a plausible inclination, and a small epoch age, it is likely the right cohort for deeper pass planning.

Pro tip: When several entries share a similar name, sort by newest epoch first, then confirm the orbit class before trusting the label.

If you see many near duplicates, reduce the cap and increase freshness filtering.
If status data is missing, rely on orbit freshness and compare across multiple entries.
For reporting, copy a single metric value directly from the status table.

Once the snapshot looks coherent, you can move on to propagation tools for timing and visibility without guessing which spacecraft you started with.

Features:

Search by satellite name, constellation keyword, or NORAD catalog ID with automatic ID detection.
Compute altitude, inclination, orbital period, mean motion, eccentricity, and a readable epoch age label.
Classify orbits into LEO, MEO, GEO belt, HEO, or Unknown using fixed altitude thresholds.
Optionally overlay SatNOGS status, operator, country, website, and a frequency violator flag.
Sort results by newest epoch, altitude, inclination, or period before applying the cap.
Copy or download tables, raw TLE text, JSON payloads, and an orbit altitude chart image.

FAQ:

Is my data stored?

The package does not write to local or session storage. Your search text is sent to fetch orbit records and optional metadata, and the results remain in memory until you refresh or navigate away.

If your environment logs network traffic, queries may be visible there.

How accurate is altitude?

Altitude is derived from mean motion using a circular orbit approximation with fixed Earth constants. It is useful for sorting and broad orbit classing, but it is not a precision propagation output and can differ from sources that model perturbations.

Treat values near class boundaries with extra care.

What units are shown?

Altitude is in kilometers, inclination is in degrees, period is in minutes, and mean motion is in revolutions per day. Epoch timestamps are ISO 8601 in exports and localized for the status table.

Can I use it offline?

You need network access to fetch orbit records and optional overlay metadata. After results load, you can still review, copy, and export what is already on screen without making another request.

What does TLE only mean?

It means the tool is showing only metrics derived from the TLE record. Health, operator, and country fields are omitted because the overlay is disabled or unavailable for that spacecraft.

How do I search by ID?

Enter the NORAD catalog ID as digits. If it is 3 to 6 digits long, the tool first attempts a direct ID lookup, then falls back to keyword search if needed.

Is there a license?

This package does not present licensing or pricing terms in its metadata. Treat it as a utility and follow your organization’s policy for distributing or embedding tools.

Troubleshooting:

No satellites found: Try a shorter keyword or remove punctuation, then search again.
Everything disappears after filtering: Set freshness days to 0 or relax the active only filter.
Status is Unknown: The overlay may not have a record for that spacecraft, or the request failed.
Chart tab is blank: Confirm there are results, then re open the chart so it can measure its container.
Altitude looks wrong: Verify mean motion is present in the TLE, and remember this is an approximation.
Downloads do nothing: Check popup or download blocking settings, then try again.
Overlay toggles are disabled: Enable the overlay first, then active only and decayed controls become available.

Blocking issue: requests time out

If every query fails after about 12 seconds, your network may be blocking the data sources or rewriting responses. Try a different network path or allow the required API hosts.

Advanced Tips:

Tip Use newest epoch sorting first to confirm you are seeing the freshest cohort.
Tip Reduce the result cap when a constellation returns many similarly named entries.
Tip Compare inclination patterns to separate shells, planes, and mission phases.
Tip Treat eccentricity near zero as a hint of circularity, not a guarantee of station keeping.
Tip When overlay data is partial, cross check by looking for consistent orbit class and epoch age.
Tip Keep a consistent freshness window across runs to make comparisons meaningful.

Glossary:

TLE: Two-Line Element set describing an orbit snapshot in a standard line format.
NORAD catalog ID: Numeric identifier used to reference a tracked object in orbit.
Epoch: Timestamp that indicates when the published orbit elements are valid.
Mean motion: Average revolutions per day implied by the orbit model.
Inclination: Angle between the orbit plane and Earth’s equatorial plane.
Eccentricity: Measure of how circular or elliptical an orbit is.
Orbit class: Bucketed label based on altitude thresholds such as LEO or GEO belt.
Decayed: Flag indicating an object is considered reentered or no longer in orbit.
Frequency violator: SatNOGS flag that marks suspected frequency misuse reports.