Satellite Tracker

A real-time 3D satellite tracking web application built with Three.js and TypeScript. Track thousands of satellites orbiting Earth with live position updates using official TLE data from CelesTrak.

Features

• 🌍 Interactive 3D Earth Globe - Smooth rotation and zoom controls
• 🛰️ Real-time Satellite Tracking - Live position updates using Two-Line Element (TLE) data
• 🎯 Multiple Categories - ISS, Starlink, GPS, Weather, OneWeb, Amateur Radio satellites
• 🔍 Search & Filter - Find specific satellites by name or filter by category
• 📡 Orbital Visualization - Display satellite orbits and trajectories
• 🏷️ Smart Labels - Toggle satellite name labels on/off
• 🖱️ Hover Details - Hover over satellites to see detailed orbital information
• 👆 Click to Select - Click satellites to select and show their orbit
• ⚡ Optimized Performance - 10 FPS target, optimized for 1 vCPU / 2GB containers

Technology Stack

• TypeScript - Type-safe development
• Three.js - 3D graphics rendering
• satellite.js - SGP4/SDP4 satellite position calculations
• Vite - Fast build tool and dev server
• CelesTrak API - Official NORAD satellite data

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm or yarn

Installation

1. Install dependencies:

npm install

2. (Optional) Configure port by creating .env file:

PORT=8080  # Default is 5173

3. Start the development server:

npm run dev

3. Open your browser to http://localhost:5173

Building for Production

npm run build

The built files will be in the dist/ directory.

Deployment

Docker (Recommended)

# Build and run with Docker Compose
docker-compose up -d

# Access at http://localhost:8080

Manual Docker Build

docker build -t satellite-tracker .
docker run -d --name satellite-tracker --cpus="1.0" --memory="2g" -p 8080:80 satellite-tracker

See DEPLOYMENT.md for detailed deployment guides including:

• Kubernetes deployment
• AWS ECS, Google Cloud Run, Azure Container Instances
• Resource configuration and scaling
• Monitoring and troubleshooting
• Production recommendations

How It Works

1. Data Source: Fetches Two-Line Element (TLE) data from CelesTrak's public API
2. Propagation: Uses SGP4/SDP4 algorithms via satellite.js to calculate real-time positions
3. Visualization: Renders satellites as colored dots on a 3D Earth globe using Three.js
4. Updates: Updates satellite positions at 3.3 Hz (every 300ms) for optimal performance
5. Rendering: Targets 10 FPS for smooth animation with minimal resource usage

Satellite Categories

• ISS & Space Stations - International Space Station and other crewed stations
• Starlink - SpaceX satellite constellation for internet
• GPS Operational - Global Positioning System satellites
• Weather - Weather monitoring satellites
• OneWeb - OneWeb satellite constellation
• Amateur Radio - Ham radio satellites

Total: ~5,000+ satellites

Controls

• Left Mouse - Rotate view
• Right Mouse / Scroll - Zoom in/out
• Hover over satellite - View detailed information (altitude, inclination, period, etc.)
• Click satellite - Select and show orbital path
• Search Box - Find satellites by name
• Category Filters - Show/hide satellite groups
• Show Orbits - Display orbital path for selected satellite
• Show Labels - Toggle satellite name labels

Data Attribution

Satellite data provided by CelesTrak - NORAD Two-Line Element Sets

Performance

Optimized for ultra-low resource containerized environments:

• Target: 1 vCPU / 2GB memory
• Frame rate: 10 FPS
• Satellites: ~5,000+ (all categories)
• Stars: 1,000 (reduced for performance)
• Memory usage: ~400-600 MB
• CPU usage: ~30-40% of single vCPU

See PERFORMANCE_1vCPU.md for detailed optimization notes.

Previous config (2 vCPU / 4GB): See PERFORMANCE.md

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.