About TrackStarlink

TrackStarlink is an independent project that tracks the SpaceX Starlink constellation in real time using publicly available orbital data. It exists to answer two questions well: where is every Starlink satellite right now, and can I see one from where I am standing tonight.

Why it exists

There are more than twelve thousand Starlink satellites in the public catalogue, and on any clear evening several of them will cross your sky. Most people who notice one have no idea what they are looking at, and the tools that could tell them were historically built for people who already knew the vocabulary.

This site tries to close that gap in both directions. If you want the practical answer — go outside at 21:14, face west, follow the light — it is on the pass pages. If you want to understand why that answer is what it is, the guides work through the orbital mechanics from first principles.

How it works

Satellites do not broadcast their positions publicly. Everything you see here is computed, and the chain is worth understanding because it explains the site's accuracy limits.

• Orbital elements — two-line element sets describing each satellite's orbit — are fetched from CelesTrak and refreshed every few hours
• Each element set is propagated with SGP4, the standard model for this class of orbit, to produce a position and velocity for any given moment
• Those inertial coordinates are rotated into an Earth-fixed frame and then into your local horizon frame, producing the elevation and azimuth that tell you where to look
• For visible-pass forecasts, a further filter runs: a pass is only shown when the satellite is sunlit while your own sky is dark, which is the condition that actually makes a satellite visible

Most of this runs in your browser rather than on a server. The 3D globe propagates the entire active constellation live, which is why the positions keep moving while you watch instead of sitting still until the page reloads.

What you can do here

• Watch the whole constellation move on the interactive 3D globe, and open any satellite for its live altitude, velocity and orbit
• Check visible pass timesfor your own city — when to look, which direction, how high
• See which satellites are above you right now and where each sits in your sky
• Browse Starlink launch history and constellation statistics computed from live orbital data
• Read twenty in-depth guides covering everything from spotting a Starlink train to reading a two-line element set field by field

What the data cannot tell you

Being explicit about limits is more useful than pretending they do not exist.

• Predictions degrade as orbital elements age, and any thruster manoeuvre invalidates elements published before it. Starlink satellites manoeuvre routinely
• Brightness is not predictable from orbital data alone — it depends on satellite orientation and sunlight geometry, so peak elevation is only a proxy for how easy a pass will be to see
• Nothing here knows about your local conditions. Cloud, terrain, buildings and light pollution all affect what you can actually see and none of them appear in the calculation
• The catalogue includes satellites still raising their orbits, being deorbited, or failed but not yet re-entered. Counts here mean “objects in orbit”, not “satellites serving customers”

Independence

TrackStarlink is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by SpaceX or Starlink. It has no access to Starlink accounts, service status or internal data, and cannot help with orders, billing, hardware or availability at your address. Everything here is derived from public sources that anyone can obtain.

The site is free to use and supported by advertising. See the privacy policy for how that works and what data is involved.

Corrections

If a prediction did not match what you saw, or a page shows numbers that contradict each other, that is worth reporting — those emails are the most useful ones this project gets. The contact page explains what to include.