API quickstart

Create a free account and generate a key from the dashboard. Keys start with ow_ and are shown once at creation.

Open the dashboard → API keys

Send the key on every request as Authorization: Bearer <key> (or X-API-Key: <key>). This fetches one object by its NORAD catalog number.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ow_your_key_here" \
  "https://www.orbitalwiki.com/api/v1/satellites/25544"

Want to try it without writing code? Run it in the playground →

Free-text search matches name, operator, and country. A bare number is treated as a NORAD id.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ow_your_key_here" \
  "https://www.orbitalwiki.com/api/v1/search?q=starlink&limit=10"

List endpoints take limit (1–100, default 20) and offset (default 0). Each response also includes meta.next / meta.prev URLs - follow those instead of computing offsets yourself.

# First page (default limit is 20)
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ow_your_key_here" \
  "https://www.orbitalwiki.com/api/v1/satellites?limit=20&offset=0"

# Next page: bump offset by the limit, or just follow meta.next in the response
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ow_your_key_here" \
  "https://www.orbitalwiki.com/api/v1/satellites?limit=20&offset=20"

Every value is backed by source claims. A single-object response includes a claims[]array: each entry is one source's assertion about one field, with its own confidence and source reference.

{
  "data": {
    "norad_cat_id": 25544,
    "name": "ISS (ZARYA)",
    "operational_status": "OPERATIONAL",
    "claims": [
      {
        "field": "operational_status",
        "value_text": "OPERATIONAL",
        "confidence": "CONFIRMED",
        "source_id": "…",
        "source_record": "…"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Try a real record: the ISS (25544).

Each claim carries a confidence. These are the values you will see in responses:

CONFIRMED

Multiple independent sources agree.

HIGH

A single authoritative source, no conflict.

MEDIUM

A reasonable source, not independently corroborated.

LOW

Weak or derived; treat with caution.

CONFLICTING

Sources disagree, the response surfaces the conflict rather than hiding it.

How each level is assigned is documented in full on the methodology page.

The free tier allows 1,000 requests/day at up to 10/second. Paid tiers raise this to 50,000/day (Builder) and 250,000/day (Business).

A 429 means you are over the limit, back off until Retry-After seconds have passed.

The catalog is an open database. When you publish anything built on it, you must attribute OrbitalWiki and its upstream sources. Every API response also carries X-OrbitalWiki-License and X-OrbitalWiki-Sources headers.

Read the canonical terms on the license page and see the upstream providers on sources.

All error bodies: { "error": "...", "hint": "..." }