SATCAT (Satellite Catalogue)

• Format definition: https://celestrak.org/satcat/satcat-format.php
• Raw data (approx. 5MB): https://celestrak.org/pub/satcat.txt

NOTICE

The satellite catalog will run out of 5-digit catalog numbers at 69999, which is estimated to occur around 2026‑07‑20. At that point, newly cataloged objects will have 6-digit catalog numbers of 100000+ and GP data will not be available for them using the TLE format. CelesTrak developed new formats that removed this limitation in May 2020 and immediately began providing GP data in those formats for software developers. The same limitations apply to the legacy fixed-field SATCAT.

See https://celestrak.org/ for more information.

Install via npm

$ npm install --save satcat

Usage

var Satcat = require( 'satcat' )

Parsing a Stream

var parser = new Satcat.Parser()

https.get( 'https://celestrak.org/pub/satcat.txt', function( response ) {
  response.pipe( parser )
})

parser.on( 'readable', function() {
  var satellite = null
  while( satellite = this.read() ) {
    // ...
  }
})

Parsing a Record

var record = `1957-001B    00002  *D SPUTNIK 1                 CIS    1957-10-04  TYMSC  1958-01-03     96.1   65.0     945     227     N/A       `
var satellite = Satcat.Satellite.parse( record )

Satellite {
  id: '1957-001B',
  catalogNumber: '00002',
  multipleNames: false,
  payload: true,
  status: 'D',
  name: 'SPUTNIK 1',
  source: 'CIS',
  launchDate: 1957-10-04T00:00:00.000Z,
  launchSite: 'TYMSC',
  decayDate: 1958-01-03T00:00:00.000Z,
  orbitalPeriod: 96.1,
  inclination: 65,
  apogeeAltitude: 945,
  perigeeAltitude: 227,
  radarCrossSection: NaN,
  orbitalStatus: ''
}

Benchmarks

$ npm run benchmark

Parsed 42972 records in 0.140 ms

Examples

• node example/http - Streaming the Celestrak Satellite Catalogue
• node example/file - Parsing & outputting the test data