Live low-Earth-orbit telemetry, propagated client-side with the
SGP4 model from CelesTrak two-line element sets.
Registry Catalog
Query a live element-set catalog from CelesTrak's GP registry.
Orbit Classes
Toggle a class to show or hide
its satellites and labels.
Re-enact historic first flights from their true geodetic pad
coordinates, with a gravity-turn ascent profile and particle exhaust.
Launch Timeline
Seven decades of spaceflight —
select a mission on the timeline.
Launch Site Simulator
Ascent Model
The vehicle rises along the local surface normal, then pitches downrange
toward geographic east on a quadratic Bézier gravity turn — the same
manoeuvre real launchers fly to trade vertical climb for orbital
velocity.
Interplanetary flight logs, replayed through a stylised solar
system — gravity assists, orbit insertions, and system-exit trajectories.
Planetary distances are compressed for legibility (not to scale).
Our nearest neighbour, rendered at its true present direction
in the sky (distance compressed for display), tidally locked and lit by the
real Sun. Twelve humans have walked its surface — visit where they landed.
The Moon
The near side always faces Earth. Its position is computed from a
simplified lunar ephemeris, so the phase and sky direction you see match
tonight's sky.
A client-side mission console for space enthusiasts —
no build step, no backend, no textures.
Orbital Mechanics
Satellites are propagated with the SGP4 model from
two-line element (TLE) sets. Each frame the propagator returns
Earth-Centered Inertial coordinates, which are rotated into
Earth-Centered Earth-Fixed space using Greenwich Mean Sidereal Time —
so every marker sits above its true ground position, in real time.
Live Day/Night Terminator
The globe blends NASA Blue Marble imagery with night-side city lights
in a custom shader. The terminator is computed from a real solar
ephemeris every quarter second — the sunlit hemisphere you see is the
one lit right now.
Data Sources
CelesTrak — live GP element sets
(celestrak.org).
NASA / Three.js — Earth, Moon, city-light, and cloud
imagery.
Three.js r160 & satellite.js v5 —
rendering and propagation, vendored locally.
Scale & Accuracy
Satellite positions and telemetry are computed from real element sets
in real time. For visibility, marker sizes and low-orbit altitudes are
exaggerated on screen, and the deep-space replay compresses planetary
distances — as most professional aerospace visualisations do. Nothing in
the numeric readouts is scaled.
Controls
Drag to orbit · scroll to zoom · right-drag to pan ·
click a satellite to inspect · Esc clears simulations
and selection.
Suggest Content
Spotted a mission we should chronicle, a catalog worth tracking, or a
correction we should make? Suggestions from fellow space enthusiasts are
very welcome.
mojed+spacewiki@intigriti.me