Satellite Tracking
Every tracked object in Earth orbit — active satellites, rocket bodies, and debris — visualized on a 3D globe. Real orbital data from Space-Track.org stored in Arc.
Loading satellite data...
How It Works
Data Source: Two-Line Element sets (TLEs) from Space-Track.org, maintained by the US Space Force's 18th Space Defense Squadron. Every tracked object in Earth orbit has a TLE updated regularly.
Propagation: SGP4 perturbation model converts orbital elements (inclination, eccentricity, mean motion) into lat/lon/altitude positions at any point in time. Positions are computed every 5 minutes for all tracked objects.
Ingestion: Python pipeline fetches TLEs daily, propagates positions with python-sgp4, and bulk imports into Arc as Parquet files.
Queries: Arc's time-based partitioning and QUALIFY window functions return the latest position for each satellite in milliseconds.
SELECT norad_id, object_name, latitude, longitude, altitude_km
FROM satellite_positions
WHERE time > NOW() - INTERVAL '10 minutes'
AND object_type = 'PAYLOAD'
QUALIFY ROW_NUMBER() OVER (
PARTITION BY norad_id ORDER BY time DESC
) = 1
LIMIT 1000Built for Aerospace & Defense
This demo shows a fraction of what Arc handles for aerospace workloads. Satellite ground stations, launch vehicles, and constellation management generate massive telemetry bursts — Arc was built for exactly these patterns.
