About ORBIS
A research-grade, real-time orbit intelligence atlas and space-traffic map, built on public data, with every estimate labeled.
What this is
ORBIS (ORBital Intelligence System) shows what is in orbit, where it is, how crowded each shell is, and where the choke points are, from Sputnik 1 in 1957 to the operational catalog of today. It tracks payloads, rocket bodies, and debris across LEO, MEO, and GEO, overlays launch ports, ground stations, live aircraft, and space weather, and traces debris clouds back to the events that created them.
Orbits are propagated in your browser with SGP4 from live two-line element sets. Nothing here is simulated for effect: positions come from real element sets, launches from a live manifest, and space weather from NOAA. Anything we estimate (risk scores, mission phase, debris attribution) is labeled as inferred so you always know what is measured versus modeled.
How it works
- Live propagation. SGP4 runs in a Web Worker over live TLEs; the globe renders thousands of objects from a single shader-driven point cloud.
- Altitude compression. Altitudes are log-compressed so LEO, MEO, and GEO are visible together. The Moon, by contrast, is drawn at true relative size and distance (~60 Earth radii). True altitude is always shown in object detail.
- Inferred mission phase. Operational / orbit-raising / drifting / deorbiting is estimated from single-epoch orbital geometry and known constellation bands, an analytic inference, not telemetry.
- Provenance everywhere. Each value carries a source and a freshness or confidence badge. No credentials are bundled; authenticated feeds degrade gracefully.
Data sources
33 catalogued sources · 11 wired in as live, cached proxy routes.
Tracking & catalogs
Current general-perturbations element sets for the active catalog by GROUP, CATNR, NAME, INTDES
Authoritative GP, GP_HISTORY, SATCAT, CDM (conjunctions), TIP (reentry), DECAY, BOXSCORE
Live ISS sub-point, altitude, velocity, visibility; TLE and pass predictions
Heliophysics/science satellite ephemerides and coordinate transforms
Operator-supplied supplemental ephemerides (Starlink, OneWeb, etc.) more accurate than public TLE
Live aircraft positions/altitude/heading by region (reachable from serverless egress, unlike OpenSky)
Launches
Upcoming/previous launches, pads, locations, agencies, vehicles, astronauts
SpaceX launches, rockets, capsules, crew, Starlink shells
Curated upcoming-launch schedule with windows and providers
Space weather
Planetary Kp index, solar wind (DSCOVR/ACE), IMF Bz, F10.7 flux, GOES X-ray, aurora (OVATION)
Space-weather notifications: CMEs, solar flares, geomagnetic storms, radiation belt enhancements
Definitive Kp / ap geomagnetic indices and Hp30/Hp60 high-cadence variants
International sunspot number, solar cycle progression
Conjunctions
Satellite Orbital Conjunction Reports Assessing Threatening Encounters in Space (close approaches)
Public Conjunction Data Messages: time of closest approach, miss distance, probability
Debris
Database of objects in space: launches, reentries, fragmentations, physical properties
Orbital Debris Quarterly News, breakup analyses, debris environment models
Near-Earth objects
Close-approach data, Sentry impact risk, fireballs, small-body database
News
Astronauts
People currently in space; ISS pass predictions (HTTP only, intermittent)
Imagery
Reference
Per-object catalog: owner, launch date/site, decay, object type, RCS, ops status
Three deep-space complexes (Goldstone, Madrid, Canberra), antenna roster, and live link status (DSN Now)
ESA tracking-station network: deep-space antennas (New Norcia, Cebreros, Malargue) and TT&C/LEOP stations
Open, community-operated global ground-station network metadata, observations, and station locations
Authoritative spacecraft master catalog by COSPAR ID, mission and instrument detail
Disclaimers
ORBIS is an independent research and visualization project. It is not affiliated with any government or operator and is not for operational collision avoidance or navigation. Public element sets carry inherent uncertainty; conjunction risk, mission phase, and debris attribution are best-effort estimates. Source data belongs to its respective providers and is used under their public/fair-use terms.