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Orbital Data API

Free, developer-friendly REST API for satellite orbital data.

The Orbital Data API gives you simple access to General Perturbations (GP) element sets — the TLE and OMM data that describes where satellites are and where they're going. Historical data back to 1959, multiple response formats, and a clean REST interface.

Why?

Space data shouldn't be hard to get. Space-Track.org is the authoritative source, but its interface was built for military operators, not developers building apps. Orbital Data API sits in front of the raw data and gives you:

  • One API key, one base URL — no session cookies or multi-step auth flows
  • Historical depth — ~170 million element sets going back to 1959
  • Multiple formats — JSON, TLE, 2LE, XML, KVN, CSV
  • Pagination and filtering — search by name, group, orbit regime, object type
  • Satellite catalog — SATCAT metadata (owner, launch date, status) alongside orbital data

Quick example

curl -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  https://orbital-data-api.davidhsu.cc/api/v1/gp/25544

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "ISS (ZARYA)",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 25544,
  "EPOCH": "2026-03-12T14:22:37.000Z",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 15.50238117,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.000573,
  "INCLINATION": 51.6416,
  "APOGEE_KM": 422.1,
  "PERIGEE_KM": 418.3
}

Community-funded

Orbital Data API is free infrastructure for the space community, funded by donations. If you find it useful, consider supporting the project:

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