Live satellite tracker

How the tracker works

Every satellite's orbit is described by a set of numbers called a two-line element set (TLE), published openly from US Space Force tracking data. This page downloads the current sets from CelesTrak and works out every position in your browser with the SGP4 model, the same method used by professional tracking software. Nothing is streamed from the satellites themselves: it's pure orbital maths, accurate to within a few kilometres.

Reading the map

The ground track is the path of the point directly beneath the satellite. Because Earth turns underneath, each orbit crosses further west than the last, so the ISS passes over a different part of the world on every 90-minute lap. The footprint is the area from which the satellite is above the horizon. For the ISS at about 420 km it's roughly 4,500 km across, which is why a radio contact via the station can span a whole continent. The higher the satellite, the bigger its footprint: GPS satellites at 20,000 km can see almost half the Earth.

The satellite groups

• Space stations: the ISS, China's Tiangong and the spacecraft visiting them.
• Amateur radio satellites: the FM and linear transponder satellites you can work with a handheld. See the amateur satellite pass predictor.
• Weather satellites: including the Meteor-M satellites, whose 137 MHz pictures you can receive. See the weather satellite page.
• Navigation satellites: GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and BeiDou. See the GNSS sky view.
• Brightest satellites: ones you can see with your own eyes. See the visible pass times.

Questions