tle

Two Line Element position calculator

A simple Python script which generates CSV files with time and satellite position (ECEF)

TLE data can come from Celestrak or any other source which is formatted correctly. The TLE data is fetched and SV position is calculated for points at specified time intervals.

Usage

python tle_calc.py

Inputs

Enter TLE url:

Enter the url of TLE data, e.g. https://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/iridium.txt

Enter satellite name (blank for all):

Enter a satellite name, e.g. 'IRIDIUM 70'. This field is optional; leaving it blank will generate generate tracks for all satellites in separate CSV files.

Enter start date (YYYY, MM, DD, HH, MM, SS):

Enter the time of the first sample. This field is optional; leaving it blank will use the current system time.

Enter sample interval (minutes):

Enter the sample interval in minutes, e.g. 1

Enter total number of samples (max 24H duration):

Enter the total number of positions to calculate, e.g. 101. The 24 hour limit is not enforced, and running longer should work as expected so long as you don't cross a leap day/second; this is not throughly tested and you should verify timestamp transitions in the output.

Outputs

A CSV file is generated containing timestamps and x, y, x satellite positions in ECEF coordinates. By default WGS84 is used, but this can be modified in the source code.