ISS Tracker

Overview

A web app that tracks the position of the International Space Station (ISS), and plots this on a map of the world.

It also locates the user’s current position, and calculates when the ISS will next fly overhead.

The clever bits come from the open notify API - this provides both the current position of the ISS and when it’ll next fly overhead based on the user’s location.

This is all plotted on a Google Map, and updated every few seconds.

The ISS

  • A habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit
  • First launched in 1998
  • The size of a football pitch - 108x73m - the largest artificial body in orbit
  • It completes 15.7 orbits per day
  • Travels at nearly 8km per second
  • It can often be seen at the appropriate time with the naked eye from Earth

Photos