r/osinttools • u/AlmostSneakers • 8h ago
Showcase I built a free live tracker for military satellites: orbit changes, close approaches, and which countriesâ satellites are over active conflicts. Good for
Iâve been building overhead24 (https://overhead24.com), a free tracker focused on military satellites. No account and no ads, and your location never leaves your browser.
What Iâm recording: every public orbit update for military satellites, logged as timestamped events: orbit changes, close approaches, satellites going quiet, new objects, launches and clusters over conflict zones. Itâs kept indefinitely. It doesnât predict anything.
The aim is a public record that shows when a countryâs satellite activity changes from its normal pattern, which matters more as tension in space grows.
What it shows
- Every working military satellite, live. 826 of them on a 3D globe, with owner flags (GCATâs military class). The 1,486 dead ones still in orbit are left out of this view, so what you see is whatâs actually operating.
- Confirmed orbit changes. When a military satellite raises or lowers its orbit or changes its tilt, itâs listed with the size and direction. A change only counts once the next public orbit update shows it too, so one-off bad fits donât show up as manoeuvres. On 19 Oct, for example, seven military satellites changed orbit, including COSMOS 2591â2594 and USA 485/486.
- Satellites closing on others. Military satellites in nearly the same orbit as another object and getting closer, the pattern inspector satellites show.
- Pairs flying together. Military satellites staying within 100 km of each other, and since when.
- Gone dark. Working military satellites whose public tracking suddenly stopped, or that left the public catalogue.
- Conflict overlay. Countries where UCDP recorded 25+ deaths in state-based conflict this year are outlined. Military satellites over them get a red ring, and thereâs a live list of which ones are overhead right now. Click a country for its conflicts, this yearâs deaths and when each conflict began.
- I need to work more on this so we have more relevant stats etc
- Clusters over conflict zones. Times in the next 24 hours when 4 or more of one countryâs working military satellites, from different launches, are over places where fighting was recorded, all at once. Click one to watch their paths meet on the globe. On the day I wrote this there were 13, all Chinese, over Pakistan, Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia and others.
- Military launches. Launches for armed forces or secret government missions are flagged, and each launch lists what it put in orbit. USSF-481, for example, shows nothing, because US military orbits arenât published.
Data
- Space-Track.org (USSPACECOM): orbits, satellite catalogue, re-entries.
- GCAT (Jonathan McDowell): owners and military class.
- Launch Library 2: launches.
- UCDP: where the fighting was.
- Positions are calculated with SGP4 from public orbit data, and everything links to its source.
Limits, before anyone asks
- Public orbit data is accurate to a few km and gets worse as it ages. Not for targeting or collision avoidance.
- Classified US satellites arenât in the public catalogue, so theyâre missing.
- Passes are set by orbits days ahead, so a cluster on its own is usually a coincidence. A satellite that recently changed orbit is what makes one interesting, and those are flagged.
- Still very early
Iâd really value feedback from people who do this work: what would make it useful in an investigation?

