Index/About
About

What is OrbitalWiki?

OrbitalWiki is a searchable catalog of tracked objects in orbit, almost all of them active payloads and stations, with field-level provenance where available and explicit unknowns, plus a free read-only API.

The problem

Orbital data is scattered across element sets, launch logs, and operator sites that can disagree. OrbitalWiki reconciles public sources into one record per object and shows supporting claims where available; fields without a matching claim remain explicitly unattributed.

What’s in it

Thousands of tracked objects, searchable by name, operator, orbit regime, country, and status. Coverage varies by object and field; missing values remain visible.

CelesTrak

Orbital mean elements for objects present in the ingested feed, refreshed on the published schedule.

GCAT

Jonathan McDowell’s launch catalog: what launched, when, and on what.

Wikidata

Operator, mission, and manufacturer metadata for cross-referencing.

SatNOGS DB

Amateur-radio transmitter frequencies and modes, contributed by the SatNOGS community (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The full reconciliation process, how sources are matched, merged, and scored, is documented on the Methodology page.

The API

The read-only developer API exposes the reconciled catalog record and available source claims. Fields without a matching claim remain explicitly unattributed, so applications do not need to infer provenance.

Where things stand

OrbitalWiki is early-access software, still being built in the open. If the site is temporarily paused, that’s expected during this phase. Check Status for anything currently in progress, or reach us directly at hello@orbitalwiki.com.