Making Earth's Orbit Understandable
Orbital Radar exists to make real-time satellite tracking, space debris monitoring and space situational awareness accessible to everyone.
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What is Orbital Radar?
Orbital Radar is a live orbital intelligence platform for exploring the increasingly complex environment around Earth. It tracks active satellites, constellations and space debris across every orbital regime: from the International Space Station and Starlink to fragmentation debris fields and re-entry candidates.
The focus is live visibility and context rather than static databases: you watch orbital behaviour as it happens. Around the globe sit the Orbital Academy (14 tracks, 84 lessons), a Space Library with 301+ reference pages, a human spaceflight hub and interactive globes for the Moon, Mars and the Sun.
Our Mission
As Earth's orbit becomes more congested and contested, understanding what is happening above our planet is no longer optional. Orbital Radar lowers the barrier to orbital insight with tools that are technically rigorous and intuitive to use.
The platform supports education, research and public awareness: it is used by universities, research institutions and analysts worldwide, and through transparency and timely visibility into anomalies, close approaches and debris events, it works toward a safer, more sustainable orbital environment.
Cited around the world
Orbital Radar has become a reference point for orbital data: its figures appear in 230+ verified publications spanning global media, financial research, academia and government-linked institutions.
Each independently verified against its original source and archived. Cited by, among many others:
Coverage is also syndicated internationally through major news and finance portals.
What we track
Nine core capabilities, each linking to its dedicated tool or guide.
Built for everyone
Whether you are teaching a class, writing a report or simply curious about what is overhead, the platform meets you where you are.
Trusted data, transparent methods
Orbital Radar aggregates and cross-checks publicly available orbital catalogues, live space weather feeds and launch data from the most widely cited providers in the space domain, then adds its own verification and enrichment.
How the data is handled
- Aggregation: independent public feeds reconciled into one picture
- Verification: figures cross-checked before they appear on any page
- Enrichment: operator, purpose and lifecycle context added
- Propagation: positions computed in real time
Update cadence
- Orbital elements: refreshed multiple times a day
- Launch schedule: synced with upstream feeds, manually curated
- Space weather: live feeds, updated every few minutes
- Library content: expanded continuously
The numbers behind the platform, live:
Start learning
Two complementary learning paths:
Orbital Academy
14 training tracks, 84 interactive lessons: orbital mechanics, tracking, space weather, debris and launch operations.
Space Library
301+ reference pages: satellite profiles, agencies, launch vehicles, spaceports, debris archives and the glossary.
Work with Orbital Radar
Orbital Radar is independent and self-funded, and works with organisations that share its goals. For media and general enquiries, use the contact page.
Stay connected
- Orbital Radar Blog: feature announcements, analysis and space news
- Space News RSS: curated space news
- Library Updates RSS: new reference pages as they publish
- System Status: live platform health and uptime
Frequently asked questions
Yes. The live globe, all trackers, the full Space Library and the Orbital Academy are free to use with no account required.
Orbital Radar aggregates publicly available orbital catalogues, live space weather feeds and launch data from widely cited providers in the space domain, then verifies and enriches them with its own processing. Full details are on the data sources page.
Yes. The platform is designed to support education and research, and is used by universities, research institutions and analysts for situational awareness, teaching orbital mechanics and public outreach.
Name Orbital Radar and link the specific page you used, with the date you accessed it. Orbital Radar data already appears in 230+ verified publications; see the Cited By page for examples across media, finance and academia.
Orbital element data is refreshed multiple times per day from source catalogues. Positions are propagated in real time so the globe always shows live motion, even between catalogue updates.
Reference pages are available in up to eleven languages: English plus Japanese, Spanish, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Romanian and Hungarian, with the deepest coverage in Japanese, Spanish, German, French and Portuguese. The live globe and trackers are in English.
Orbital Radar is independently built and funded. You can support the project through a one-time or recurring donation, which helps cover server costs, data licensing and ongoing development. Organisations can also partner with Orbital Radar or license its data.