About ISSINFO
Our Mission
ISSINFO provides accurate, real-time tracking of the International Space Station, Tiangong, the Hubble Space Telescope and other satellites using professional-grade orbital mechanics. Our goal is to make space science accessible to educators, students, amateur astronomers, and anyone curious about humanity's presence in orbit.
The Science Behind the Tracker
Unlike simple coordinate lookups, ISSINFO performs continuous orbital propagation using the SGP4 (Simplified General Perturbations 4) algorithm—the same mathematical model used by NORAD and NASA for satellite tracking. We apply this to every tracked satellite (ISS, Tiangong, Hubble and more), accounting for:
We update our Two-Line Element (TLE) data from CelesTrak multiple times daily for all tracked satellites and propagate positions at 4Hz for smooth, accurate visualization.
Our Mission
ISSINFO provides accurate, real-time tracking of the International Space Station, Tiangong, the Hubble Space Telescope and other satellites using professional-grade orbital mechanics. Our goal is to make space science accessible to educators, students, amateur astronomers, and anyone curious about humanity's presence in orbit.
The Science Behind the Tracker
Unlike simple coordinate lookups, ISSINFO performs continuous orbital propagation using the SGP4 (Simplified General Perturbations 4) algorithm—the same mathematical model used by NORAD and NASA for satellite tracking. We apply this to every tracked satellite (ISS, Tiangong, Hubble and more), accounting for:
- Atmospheric drag — The ISS orbits at ~400km where trace atmosphere causes gradual orbital decay
- Earth's oblateness (J2 perturbation) — Earth's equatorial bulge affects orbital precession
- Gravitational harmonics — Non-uniform mass distribution influences the trajectory
- Solar radiation pressure — Photon momentum affects large structures like ISS solar arrays
We update our Two-Line Element (TLE) data from CelesTrak multiple times daily for all tracked satellites and propagate positions at 4Hz for smooth, accurate visualization.
