This database combines information from the U.S. Space Track catalog and the UCS Satellite Database and presents it visually in Google Earth. It allows the user to easily display the location of individual objects or sets of objects—both active satellites and debris—around the Earth (Figure 1), as well as showing the orbit and technical information about each object (Figures 2, 3). The user can also change the color of sets of objects to distinguish them in the display (Figure 4).

The location and orbits of each object are updated every morning from the Space Track catalog and are downloaded to the user’s computer.

Figure 1. All objects in orbit (active satellites in yellow, others in white)

Figure 2. Technical information on the “RADIO ROSTO” satellite

Figure 3. Orbits of a U.S. GPS Satellite in an Earth-fixed frame (white) and an inertial frame (green)

Figures 4. Chinese (red) and U.S. (white) active satellites in low Earth orbit

Here is a video showing what the database can do.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b12bS7267U8

There are three versions of the Database. The complete version can be downloaded here, which is recommended to people who heard semimajor axis before. Once you have downloaded the file and installed Google Earth, you can enter the Database by double-clicking the kml file.

There is another version, which does not show the semimajor axis figure in the description of satellites, so that the performance of the database is improved. This simplified version is recommend to amateurs, and can be downloaded here.

The third version of the Database does not show name of space objects in the Google Earth main screen. This version can be downloaded here.

When it is first loaded, the Database is located in the “Temporary Places“ folder of the Places” window on the left side of the Google Earth screen. You can save it to “My Places” by right-clicking on “Space Objects” and choosing “Save to My Places” in the popup menu (see Figure).

After doing this, the Database is stored in Google Earth. Every time you open Google Earth, it will automatically download the latest data from my website. It may take several seconds to several minutes to download the latest data (roughly 1 megabyte), depending on the speed of your internet connection.

If you do not want the space objects to show in the Google Earth main window, uncheck the box beside “Space Objects.”

A Complete manual can be downloaded here.

If you find any bugs, please leave a comment or send me an email wangting@wangting.org, thank you.