OrbitOPS

Real-time orbital object monitoring, visualization, and space-debris intelligence platform.

OrbitOPS is a full-stack space situational awareness project that retrieves genuine orbital elements from CelesTrak, propagates object positions using SGP4, evaluates risk indicators, and presents the results through an interactive mission-control interface.

Live application

https://orbitops-shjr.onrender.com

Render free-tier instances may require a short cold start after inactivity.

Verified production status

• 1,511 real orbital objects
• CelesTrak OMM JSON/GP orbital elements
• Runtime SGP4 propagation
• Latitude, longitude, altitude, ECI position, and velocity data
• 38 backend tests passed
• 6 backend subtests passed
• Frontend ESLint passed
• Vite production build passed
• All public routes returned HTTP 200

Features

• Real CelesTrak orbital-data ingestion
• SGP4 orbital propagation
• Interactive Three.js Earth visualization
• Satellite, debris, and rocket-body catalogue
• Object search and detailed telemetry
• Risk scoring and risk explanations
• Multi-epoch conjunction screening
• Conjunction history
• AI-assisted mission briefings
• Mission overview and analytics
• Alerts and reports
• Launch intelligence
• Production health endpoints
• Genuine orbital-data cache for upstream resilience
• Docker and Render deployment
• GitHub Actions continuous integration

Architecture

CelesTrak OMM JSON/GP
        |
        v
Orbital ingestion and real-data cache
        |
        v
SGP4 propagation engine
        |
        +-- Position and velocity calculation
        +-- Object classification
        +-- Risk analytics
        +-- Conjunction screening
        |
        v
Flask REST API and Socket.IO
        |
        v
React, Vite, Three.js and Recharts

Technology stack

Backend

Python, Flask, Flask-CORS, Flask-SocketIO, SGP4, Skyfield, NumPy, Requests, Gunicorn, and Pytest.

Frontend

React, Vite, Three.js, React Three Fiber, Framer Motion, Recharts, Tailwind CSS, and Socket.IO client.

Infrastructure

Docker, Render, GitHub Actions, ESLint, and Vite.

Application routes

Route	Purpose
/	Landing page
/overview	Mission overview
/visualization	Interactive orbital globe
/alerts	Risk and conjunction alerts
/reports	Mission reports and analytics
/satellites	Searchable orbital catalogue
/launches	Launch intelligence

API endpoints

Endpoint	Purpose
GET /api/health	Deployment and backend health
GET /api/data-status	CelesTrak and cache status
GET /api/debris	Propagated orbital objects
GET /api/objects	Object catalogue
GET /api/object/<id>	Individual object details
GET /api/risk	Risk analytics
GET /api/high-risk	High-risk objects
GET /api/conjunctions	Conjunction screening
GET /api/conjunction-history	Conjunction history
GET /api/stats	Platform statistics
GET /api/search	Object search
GET /api/ai/briefing	AI-assisted mission briefing

Example production object

{
  "name": "FENGYUN 1C",
  "norad_id": 25730,
  "type": "DEBRIS",
  "lat": -66.211643,
  "lon": -141.133523,
  "altitude_km": 819.749,
  "velocity_km_s": 7.44595,
  "propagator": "SGP4",
  "element_source": "CelesTrak",
  "data_mode": "live-propagated"
}

Local development

git clone https://github.com/iTulsi/OrbitOPS.git
cd OrbitOPS
python3 -m venv backend/.venv
source backend/.venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python backend/app.py

Start the frontend in another Terminal:

cd frontend
npm ci
npm run dev

Testing

cd backend
.venv/bin/python -m pytest -q

cd frontend
npm run lint
npm run build

Data resilience

OrbitOPS first attempts to retrieve current orbital elements from CelesTrak. When CelesTrak is temporarily unavailable, the application uses a curated cache containing genuine CelesTrak OMM records. Positions and velocities are still recalculated using SGP4 at runtime.

OrbitOPS does not silently replace unavailable orbital telemetry with fabricated mock objects.

Disclaimer

OrbitOPS is an educational and portfolio engineering project. It is not affiliated with NASA, NORAD, CelesTrak, the United States Space Force, or any commercial space-traffic-management provider.

It must not be used as the sole source for spacecraft maneuver planning, collision-avoidance decisions, or operational flight safety.

Author

Tulsi Sanskrati Tomar

• GitHub: @iTulsi
• Live application: OrbitOPS

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for local setup, testing, branch naming, and pull request guidelines.