Kayhan Space introduced Satcat, a new source of information about objects and events in Earth orbit. Satcat, short for Satellite Catalog, combines open-source data on spacecraft and debris with instruments to simplify research and analysis. “If you wanted to collect information about satellites, it wasn’t easy,” he told SpaceNews in the past. Araz Feizi is the co-founder and CTO of Kayhan.

Satcat.com combines information about current and historical positions of active and decaying satellites with satellite frequencies and space weather data.

“The creation of Satcat stemmed from a desire to simplify access to vital satellite data for aviation professionals and enthusiasts alike,” said Hyun Seo, Kayhan’s vice president of products and chief designer of Satcat. “Industry professionals, including our in-house astrodynamics team, often rely on multiple datasets with different interfaces, scales, and units, which slows them down significantly. Satcat brings together these diverse datasets in one place, enabling research for these professionals and beyond.” and simplifies the analysis process.”

Data sources

Users can search for more objects in the Satcat database by name, object type, launch date, country of origin, apogee and perigee.

Satcat obtains data from the following sources: Space-Track, the US Space Command catalog; GCAT, General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects, Jonathan McDowell; Mike McCant’s web page; and launch events from The Space Devs. Space weather information comes from Celestrak, GFZ-Potsdam, Kyoto University, Natural Resources Canada, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Center and the Solar Impact Data Analysis Center at the Royal Observatory of Belgium.

Satcat typically contains four-year historical two-line items for space objects. Users can choose a visual representation of orbiting spacecraft, rocket bodies, and debris. Kayhan receives feedback from users via the Discord server.

“We hope people will tell us how they use Satcat, what else they want to see, and how it helps them on a daily basis,” Fazey said.

Satcat sandbox

Advanced Satcat analysis tools are available through Satcat Sandbox. In Sandbox, users can compare the position of the primary satellite with two-line elements for up to 10 secondary objects.

“Kayhan instruments help analysts quickly navigate contextual data to understand orbital events,” Maj. Sean Allen, chief of the U.S. Space Systems Command’s Space Systems Technologies, Programs and Processes Laboratory, said in a statement. “For example, how many objects have Chinese spaceplanes deployed? What else are in a similar orbit? These tools make it easier to answer these questions.”