OrbitWatch

Most likely encounters

Ranked by maximum collision probability. The bar plots miss distance on a logarithmic scale from 1 m to the 5 km screening threshold.

as published · static until the feed loads

Closest passes

The same window, ranked by absolute miss distance instead of probability. It is a different list — and that difference is the story.

as published · static until the feed loads

The two lists rarely agree. Probability rises when two tracked, active satellites converge with tight uncertainty — which increasingly means one constellation meeting itself. Raw proximity is dominated by spent rocket bodies and fragments, which pass closer but carry looser position estimates. One list describes crowding. The other describes debris.

Who is in the window

Appearances across both lists, by operator.

as published · static until the feed loads

Counted across 20 listed encounters, of which 6 were between two satellites of the same fleet.

Falling objects

Catalogued objects whose orbits are decaying, ordered by perigee — the lowest point of the orbit, and the best available proxy for how little time is left.

as published · static until the feed loads

This list does not predict re-entry dates. The upstream catalogue publishes orbital elements, not re-entry forecasts, and a credible forecast needs atmospheric density modelling this page does not do. Perigee altitude is shown because it is measured, not estimated.

From where you stand

The same element sets, resolved against one place on the ground. Give the page a position and it computes when each tracked object crosses your sky, which way it rises and sets, how high it gets, and whether it will be lit by the Sun while your sky is dark.

Loading the element set…

Your position is used in this browser and nowhere else. It is not sent to the feed, not written to storage, not put in the address bar, and not logged. Reloading the page forgets it. Every figure in this table is computed here on your device from the published elements — nothing about where you are crosses the network.

The tracked set is stations, the brightest-objects catalogue and decaying orbits — not the whole sky. “Naked eye” means the object is above the horizon floor, sunlit, and your sky is past civil twilight — sampled at three points of the pass. It is a geometric verdict, not a brightness prediction: a lit object can still be too faint to see.

Method & sources

Each daily build stores the SHA-256 of the exact upstream payload it read, so any figure on this page can be traced back to the bytes it came from.

Not for operational use. These are screening results, not conjunction assessments. Collision probabilities depend on a covariance model and should not be used for manoeuvre decisions. Operators fly on data from their own tracking providers.