These look like random numbers, what do they even mean? Now, how does a TLE file look? Here is a demo. The improved version became the standard model for NORAD in the early 1970s, which ultimately led to the creation of the TLE format. Lane's models were widely used by the military and NASA starting in the late 1960s. His first paper on the topic, published in 1965, introduced the Analytical Drag Theory, which concerned itself primarily with the effects of drag caused by a spherically-symmetric non-rotating atmosphere. So, basically these TLE files contain pretty much all you need to calculate a satellite's positional data.Ī bit more regarding the history of TLE from wiki again - In the early 1960s, Max Lane developed mathematical models for predicting the locations of satellites based on a minimal set of data elements.

Using suitable prediction formula, the state (position and velocity) at any point in the past or future can be estimated to some accuracy. A two-line element set (TLE) is a data format encoding a list of orbital elements of an Earth-orbiting object for a given point in time, the epoch. I will quote some lines from Wiki regarding the TLE. Utilizing the TLEs, Location & current time, the algorithm somehow manages to tell you where a satellite is right now and when will it pass over your head. After installing these software, you would only have to give your location(Longitude, Latitude) and your current local time. The idea came to me when I noticed that all the available satellite orbit tracking software(such as: Orbitron, Gpredict and etc) work offline, but they keep asking for TLE updates all the time. Before jumping right into the project instructions, let us first take a little walk through how this system works.

Orbitron satellite tracking tuorial