Background on Space Track Data Access

As a service to the CelesTrak user community, users with valid Space Track accounts (accounts may be obtained at www.space-track.org) may access this page to receive data in the formats they are already accustomed to. This access will simply format queries to the Space Track system and return them as provided by Space Track.

Limitations: Currently, there are several limitations with this approach:

• While these queries do provide the same data, some queries can take a minute or more to return (results may improve with more frequent access). Update: Space Track has dramatically improved query performance and all results are returned virtually instantaneously.
• Due to limits on the number of objects returned per query (100), some data sets had to be broken into several parts. Update: Space Track has taken action to allow longer queries, but limitations on URL length seem to prevent taking advantage of this capability. It does not appear to be a Space Track server limitation.
• There is a two-line header (Object ID Query Results) at the top of each page. Update: The two-line header has now been removed.
• Object names are those used by Space Track, not those used in the standard CelesTrak data sets and the name field is not a fixed 24-character length.
• Due to security restrictions in the standard Document Object Model incorporated in most web browsers, there is no way to filter the data to check for data quality or standard formatting.

Given these limitations, you may still have problems loading this data into existing satellite tracking applications.

New: A standalone Windows application is now available which eliminates all of these issues and allows Space Track users to generate standard CelesTrak data sets easily and quickly on their own system.

To use this service, you must provide your Space Track username and password, which will then be stored in a cookie on your system (it is not saved on CelesTrak). If you do not have cookies enabled for CelesTrak, you will be prompted for your Space Track username and password each time you access the CelesTrak data page. You must also allow pop-ups on CelesTrak or you will not be able to log in to Space Track to obtain your Space Track session cookie. Of course, you must have cookies enabled for Space Track or you will be unable to access it.

If you have a current Space Track account and wish to try this system, simply go to the Space Track Data Access page and submit your username and password when queried. CelesTrak will use that information to log you in to your Space Track account and then open the Space Track data page.