Track what is overhead
The Satellites ATAK Plugin fetches TLE information of any satellite via NORAD ID or satellite category and uses that information to calculate its position accurately even when offline. Broadcast satellites to other EUDs on the network easily.
Fetch the TLE once — keep tracking with the network gone
Set distance and angle filters to discover what satellites are above your location, or above any map location you are focused on.
Create a custom list of specific satellites via NORAD ID or the discovery mechanism for persistent tracking, adjustable TLE refresh rates and more. Import and export the list to share it with other ATAK users.
TLE data is accurate for up to a week before a refresh is needed, so once you have discovered satellites and fetched their TLE data you can keep tracking them in near-real time while completely offline — and broadcast them to the other EUDs on the network.
Knowing which satellite is overhead is easy. Knowing whether you can actually work it from where you are standing — with the link down — is the part that takes engineering. The plugin does that part and hands the operator a colour.
Set distance and elevation-angle filters and the plugin returns the satellites above your location — or above any map location you are focused on. Search one bird by NORAD ID, or pull an entire Celestrak constellation group and add what you need to your list.
For any tracked satellite the plugin renders its ground footprint as a live circle that moves with the orbit, sized by real spherical geometry at the minimum elevation angle you set. Your own row turns green when your position falls inside that footprint and red when it does not — so the answer to "can I work this bird" is a colour, not a calculation.
Position is computed locally, every time. Propagation runs through a three-tier chain so accuracy degrades gracefully instead of failing: Orekit first, on the WGS84 ellipsoid with IERS 2010 ITRF frames; predict4java second; and a self-contained SGP4 implementation last, so a position still comes out on a device carrying no external orbital libraries at all.
Element sets come from Celestrak, which needs no API key and no account, or from N2YO for operators who already hold one. Each set is cached on the device and read back transparently. TLE data stays usable for about a week before a refresh is needed, so a satellite you discovered before you left connectivity keeps tracking in near-real time while completely offline.
Each satellite is published as a standard Cursor-on-Target event, so it federates and multicasts like anything else on the net — no second tool, no separate screen. A Virtual Contact mode instead places satellites into ATAK’s Contacts list for operators who want to work them like any other station.
Extended feature list
Search by category rather than one satellite at a time. Celestrak groups the plugin can pull include Starlink, OneWeb, Iridium and Iridium NEXT, Globalstar, ORBCOMM, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou, geostationary, Intelsat and SES, amateur radio, weather, NOAA and GOES, SARSAT, space stations, science, Planet and Spire — more than thirty groups in all.
Create a custom list of specific satellites via NORAD ID or the discovery mechanism for persistent tracking, adjustable TLE data refresh rates and more. Satellites allows you to import and export your custom list to share with other ATAK users. TLE data is relatively accurate for up to 1 week before a refresh is needed so you can have reliable tracking even when offline.
Add any satellite through the discovery mechanism to the “My Satellites” list you can curate based on your mission objectives with a simple add button.
Minimum elevation defaults to 15°, the angle recommended for reliable UHF. Drop to 5° for maximum coverage and less reliable links, or raise past 20° for the best link quality and the smallest circle. Built for the question a comms planner actually asks: can this position reach an ageing geostationary UHF bird.
Element sets come from Celestrak, which needs no API key and no account, by NORAD ID or by group. Operators who already hold an N2YO key can use that provider instead. Element sets are cached per satellite on the EUD and read back transparently.
Satellites publish as standard space-affiliation CoT markers by default, with alternative types for space vehicle, tracked object and infrastructure. Virtual Contact mode instead places them in ATAK's Contacts list. Dispatch locally to your own map or out to every EUD on the network.
Marker updates are processed in parallel and coalesced so a large list works from the newest snapshot instead of building a queue. Positions refresh on a five-second interval by default, the plugin warns past fifty tracked satellites, and coverage circles disable automatically past one hundred to keep the map responsive.
Fetched once. Propagated on the device.
Element sets are pulled from public orbital data providers and cached on the EUD. Everything after that — position, coverage, in-range state — is computed locally, which is why the plugin keeps working when the link does not.
The default source for two-line element sets. No API key, no account, no per-use billing. Queried by NORAD ID for a single satellite or by group name for a whole constellation.
For operators who already hold an N2YO key. Single-satellite queries by NORAD ID; group queries are not available from this provider, so constellation pulls fall back to Celestrak.
Every fetched element set is written to the device and read back transparently on the next update, so a satellite you have already discovered keeps tracking with the network gone.
Position is computed on the EUD through a three-tier fallback chain. Orekit gives the highest accuracy using the WGS84 ellipsoid and IERS 2010 ITRF frames; predict4java is the second tier; a self-contained SGP4 implementation with its own Kepler solver is the floor, so a position is always produced.
Know which bird you can reach, before you need it.
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