We are excited to announce that we are celebrating yet another significant milestone for the SatNOGS project as the SatNOGS DB stored its 200 millionth data frame!!!

The milestone data frame

The 200 millionth frame was received on the 31st of October. It was a frame of satellite 47438 – UVSQ-SAT that was received by ground station 2760 – M0GKK-BB. And it was observation #8429588 for the SatNOGS Network.

We can only be thrilled with the enormity of this massive number, and we are also very grateful for these contributions. Congratulations to all for reaching such a fantastic milestone!

The SatNOGS DB

The SatNOGS DB is a component of the SatNOGS project, and it is a collaborative effort to create a holistic, unified, global database for all the artificial objects in space. A point of reference for all the satellites and spacecraft. Data frames are sent to the SatNOGS DB from stations belonging to the SatNOGS Network, as well as independent stations and telemetry forwarders. The SatNOGS DB receives frames from more than 1500 stations around the globe. Tracking over 1650 satellites and 3040+ transmitters in 50 different modes and ten bands. All these add up to the amazing 200 Million data frames received. Thus constituting the SatNOGS DB, the biggest, open-source and crowd-sourced database for openly distributed satellite data.

The Libre Space Manifesto

Like all the Libre Space Foundation projects, the SatNOGS DB also adheres to the principles of the Libre Space Manifesto. Supporting and promoting Openness (Open development and governance, open data, open-source, and free access to Space) with dedication to enhancing knowledge and scientific research.

The SatNOGS Community

SatNOGS is brought to life and expanding because of the unceasing collaboration, devotion, and ongoing contribution of its community. The latter is comprised of a vast network of space enthusiasts, radio amateurs, university teams, satellite operators and ground station owners. All the members and the open-source supporters who make up the SatNOGS Community add to the project’s success.

To all of you, we are whole-heartedly grateful!

Do you want to join SatNOGS and be part of the next Milestone?

If the SatNOGS project has sparked your interest, and you love space and open-source technologies, then there are many ways you can contribute. You can help with the SatNOGS DB by joining the SatNOGS Network, setting up a station or forwarding the frames to the SatNOGS DB through the SiDS protocol. You can also opt to create decoders to help us decode the load of data received and visualise them on the SatNOGS Dashboard. If you are fluent in Python and/or JS, you can contribute to the satnogs-db web application.

The SatNOGS Community is a global, diverse, inclusive, collaborative, open community that welcomes people from different backgrounds. People who wish to contribute by devoting their valuable time, ideas, knowledge and expertise to the SatNOGS project. If this appeals to you, you can start by checking the SatNOGS knowledge-base wiki. You are also welcome to join our community forums and drop us a line on the chat. Get in touch with us!

We are looking forward to having you onboard the SatNOGS project and community. Join us now so that you are part of our next Milestone!

Thank you!

The SatNOGS Network has achieved yet another amazing Milestone! It has reached its eight millionth observation, and we are deeply grateful to the entire Community for this achievement!

Eight million Observations

On the 11th of August 2023, observation #8000000 was uploaded on the SatNOGS Network by station 2173 – PE0SAT-21 in the Netherlands. The observation was scheduled by Jan Van Gils (PE0SAT), receiving data from satellite TigriSat. The eight millionth observation is of good quality.

It is an observation coming from an operational satellite that has been making its way through space for almost ten years.

TigriSat

TigriSat is a 3U CubeSat built by Iraqi students in collaboration with the La Sapienza University of Rome. Its mission is to detect dust storms over Iraq. For this, the CubeSat features an RGB camera. It was launched into space by the Dniepr launch vehicle from Orenburg, Russia, on June 19, 2014. TigriSat is considered to be Iraq’s first satellite.

SatNOGS achieved another milestone!

We are thrilled that SatNOGS has achieved another astonishing Milestone. Everything accomplished is thanks to the active and vibrant community. As is the case, every SatNOGS achievement results from the collaborative work and the continuous efforts made by hundreds of ground station owners around the globe. They are the ones who have made this milestone (and everything) possible by scheduling observations, tracking satellites and, in general, dedicating time and effort to the success of the SatNOGS project.

SatNOGS in Numbers

The SatNOGS network counts over 240+ fully operational ground stations and 150+ in testing mode. The observations come from 1545+ satellites and 2890+ transmitters delivering over 192M data frames. As the numbers show, SatNOGS has significantly expanded and has become the biggest, global, open-source network of satellite ground stations.

Outer Space Open For All (The Libre Space Manifesto)

All Libre Space Foundation’s projects are built to enhance scientific research and knowledge about Space and to enable everyone interested in exploring Space for peaceful purposes. These values are also at the core of the Libre Space Manifesto.

Outer Space Open For All (the SatNOGS way)

Abiding by the Libre Space Manifesto values, SatNOGS is a project that not only is built and developed in a modular, open-source way but also the data collected is distributed openly. The SatNOGS community offers support and guidance in onboarding new members and even helps satellite teams with their missions. Throughout its years of operation, SatNOGS has helped hundreds of Satellite Teams from all over the world to successfully identify and track their satellite. The community and its members assist missions from all corners of the world to run their experiments and tests and successfully complete their missions. Not only can the community help you communicate with your satellite as it schedules around 10,000 observations per day, but it can also guide you throughout the onboarding process. Guide you through the actions you need to take and help you with creating and populating the dashboard of your mission with the data received. All you need to do is contact the SatNOGS team early on and provide the necessary details and information about your mission.

Want to join the SatNOGS community and be part of the next Milestone?

The SatNOGS community is open and inclusive, welcoming everyone who wishes to contribute their time, knowledge and expertise to the project. If SatNOGS has sparked your interest and you want to learn more, check out the SatNOGS wiki knowledge base. You can drop us a line on the community forums and the dedicated SatNOGS chat. We would love to hear from you and have you join the SatNOGS network and community and be part of the next million observations.

Join SatNOGS now and help make Outer Space Open for All!

We are excited to share with you the news of SatNOGS achieving yet another milestone, as it has reached 7 million observations. 

On the 8th of January, observation #7000000 was uploaded on the SatNOGS Network by station 901 – VE2WI – UHF in Quebec, Canada. The observation was scheduled by Laurent Beaudet, the station owner, receiving data from AMSAT-OSCAR 7. Though the seven millionth observation is of a rather poor quality, it is, in fact, coming from a satellite that has been making its way through space for almost 50 years.

Satellite AMSAT-OSCAR 7 was launched on November 15, 1974, and by mid-1981, it had been rendered non-operational due to battery failure. It was almost 20 years later, in 2002, that it was brought back to life when one of the shorted batteries became an open circuit, and the satellite could operate again. This time using solar panels. What this means is that when in eclipse, the satellite cannot supply enough power to the transmitter to modulate the signal. When continuously illuminated, though, the mode will alternate between A and B every 24 hours. AMSAT-OSCAR 7 became SatNOGS‘s 7 millionth observation 20 years after its resurrection and 49 years after its deployment.

SatNOGS has achieved yet another astonishing Milestone, all thanks to its community. This is the result of the collaborative work and the continuous efforts made by hundreds of ground station owners around the globe. They are the ones who have made this milestone possible by scheduling observations, tracking satellites and, in general, dedicating time and effort to the success of the SatNOGS project.

So let us celebrate this Milestone by taking a closer look at some of the highlights of 2022 for SatNOGS and for everything the SatNOGS Community has achieved in the past year.

SatNOGS Highlights 2022

SatNOGS in Numbers

• Hunting satellites of 26 different launches: the SatNOGS Network was there at almost all the big launches of the year, ready to schedule observations and hunt satellites. Among the launches for which we scheduled observations were SpaceX’s Transporter 3, Transporter 4 and Transporter 5, ELaNa 38, ELaNa41, JAXA’s JSSOD20, 21, 22, 23, ISRO,  Jielong-3, Vega C the Inaugural Flight, S4 Crossover – Astra Rocket LV0009, Chang Zheng-2D, and Firefly Aerospace’s ToTheBlack mission. 
• Tracking more than 830 satellites.
• Making over 1.670.000 observations, an average of 4.5K observations per day.
• Scheduling a sizeable number of observations per deployment ….(There was a time in 2022 that we scheduled over 1800 observations for the first 48 hours of a launch…)

• On average, receiving the first signals of the satellites within the first few hours of their deployment.

• Contributing to missions with more than 11K observations.. the GASPACS mission was one such mission…

• Collaborating with International satellite teams from over 15 countries (Brasil, USA, Spain, Italy, France, Luxemburg, Germany, Finland, Turkey, Israel, UAE, India, Nepal, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan) and more than 20 Universities from around the world.

Celebrations and Goodbyes…

In 2022, SatNOGS and its Community celebrated anniversaries together as satellites continued their lonely yet magical journey through space.

and…

And bid goodbye to satellites that travelled in space and re-entered gloriously.

and

But we were not saddened…

As many of the satellites provided us with wonderful images before they disappeared…

RamSat, a CubeSat built by the students of the Robertsville Middle School in Oak Ridge (Oak Ridge Public Schools), Tennessee, USA, with the supervision and mentorship of the Oak Ridge National Lab, provided us with some breathtaking photos…

and enlighted us with their insightful analyses that taught us beautiful things about space and satellites. The RamSat team was kind enough to share with the SatNOGS Community their findings during RamSat’s quest in space. The team shared some detailed analyses and helpful lessons learned. Among these analyses falls their input on the extreme temperatures RamSat experienced in space due to the intense conditions. https://community.libre.space/t/ramsat-mission-progress/8219/52.  

Tracking our very own…

Among the year’s highlights was the return to space of the Libre Space Foundation. It was a moment of great excitement for the LSF team to track the QUBIK mission. To hunt the PICOBUS deployer and PocketQubes, QUBIK-3 and QUBIK-4, as they made it to orbit onboard Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha Flight 2.

Art and SatNOGS

A few months before 2022 was gone, Nye Thompson, a visual artist and a member of the SatNOGS Community, began working on an experimental art project using SatNOGS.

The project uses SSTV transmitted via a satellite as a way to generate and distribute new images. It’s also a kind of networked performance with the satellite.

You can find more details about how you can contribute to SatNOGS art in the dedicated thread on the Community Forum.

Wrapping up …

2022 was a great year for SatNOGS as the Network, and the DB continued to grow, and its Community kept expanding. SatNOGS has now proudly reached over 400 ground stations spread in 50 countries across the globe, having tracked 1177 satellites, 2180 transmitters, 165 million data frames and 7 million observations. It thus remains the world’s biggest open-source network of satellite ground stations.

Led by a Community that fosters collaboration, inclusivity and diversity, SatNOGS welcomes everyone who wishes to contribute their time, knowledge and expertise to the project. A project built and developed to enhance scientific research, knowledge about Space and to enable everyone interested, to explore Space for peaceful purposes, as the Libre Space Manifesto states explicitly.

You are welcome to join the project too, and be part of our next Milestone as we work hard to make…..

Outer Space Open For all!

We are excited to share with you, the new milestone achieved by the SatNOGS network, as it has reached 6.000.000 observations!

On the 27th of May, observation #6000000 was uploaded on the SatNOGS network by station 1936 – VK4JBE-UHF, in Camp Hill, Queensland, Australia . The observation was scheduled by VK4JBE, the station owner, receiving data from AAUSAT-II, a Danish CubeSat of the University of Aalborg. Although the satellite is operational, it seems to be tumbling in space, resulting in generating rather poor observations.

Achieving the astonishing 6 Millionth Observation is a Milestone that SatNOGS has reached thanks to its community. This too is the result of the collaborative work and the continuous efforts made by hundreds of ground station owners around the globe. They are the ones who have made this milestone possible, by scheduling observations, tracking satellites and in general, dedicating time and effort to the success of the SatNOGS project. So let us take a closer look at some of the astonishing statistics of the project.

SatNOGS in Numbers

The SatNOGS network counts over 265+ fully operational ground stations and 145+ in testing mode. The observations come from 810+ satellites and 1500+ transmitters having delivered over 144M data frames. As the numbers show, SatNOGS has expanded greatly and has become the biggest, global, open-source network of satellite ground stations.

Outer Space Open For all

SatNOGS, much like all Libre Space Foundation’s projects, is built to enhance scientific research, and knowledge about Space, and to enable everyone interested, to explore Space for peaceful purposes. These are all, values that are at the core of the Libre Space Manifesto and guide SatNOGS too.

Thus, the project itself is not only built and developed in a modular, open-source way but the data collected is also distributed openly. The community offers support and guidance in onboarding new members and it even helps satellite teams with their missions. Not only can the community help you communicate with your satellite but they can also guide you throughout the onboarding process. All you need to do is contact the team and provide the necessary details and information about your mission.

Want to join the SatNOGS community and be part of the next million observations?

The SatNOGS community is open and inclusive, welcoming everyone who wishes to contribute their time, knowledge and expertise to the project. If SatNOGS has sparked your interest and you want to find out more, check out the SatNOGS wiki knowledge base. You are welcome to drop us a line on the community forums and the dedicated SatNOGS chat. We would love to hear from you and have you join the SatNOGS network and community.

Join SatNOGS now!

The SatNOGS network has reached 5,000,000 observations and we are thrilled to share this news with you!

More specifically, on the 13th of November, Observation #5000000 was uploaded on the SatNOGS network from the 1126 – notch ground station in New Hampshire, USA. It was scheduled by user kc1ist and received data from satellite ACRUX-1.

And though the 5 millionth Observation was received from a satellite that is no longer active, still there are two interesting stories behind this observation that we would like to share with you. The first story revolves around the satellite ACRUX-1.

SatNOGS and ACRUX-1

Though nowadays, ACRUX-1 might be a “dead” satellite, the truth is that its story is not only fascinating but also indicative of the way the SatNOGS community operates. So let us take a closer look.

ACRUX-1, an Australian, university satellite, was launched at the end of June 2019. Upon deployment, the satellite was operating according to plan and for the first couple of days, everything was working fine. The TLEs had been released early on and the SatNOGS network was as usual, active and ready to track the satellite. But… after a few days of flying in space, ACRUX-1 went dead. And as the days passed and there was no signal received, everyone believed that that was the end for the satellite. The SatNOGS network though continued to keep an eye on ACRUX-1, by continuing to schedule observations.

It wasn’t until 5 months later, in December 2019, when a radio amateur picked up a signal of an “unknown” satellite and posted about it on Twitter https://twitter.com/CX8AF/status/1200969150094618624. A member of the SatNOGS network came across that tweet and recognised the “unknown” satellite. It was, in fact, ACRUX-1, that had begun transmitting again. The network was notified and it began tracking the satellite that inevitably became a priority. SatNOGS started receiving and collecting data about it!! ACRUX-1 was “resurrected” after almost 5 months and its signal was live again. Sadly, that transmission lasted only a couple of hours. One thing to note is that during its “resurrection”, the satellite transmitted in a different frequency than the one in the first place. And though the communication upon resurrection was maintained only for a few hours, the entire process was exciting to follow and monitor.

Before becoming Observation 5M, ACRUX-1 had numerous observations including Observation #1296318 scheduled back in December 2019, during its few hours of “resurrection”.

SatNOGS and the Hackaday Prize

Observation #5000000 was received on a day that is of great significance for SatNOGS. As years ago, on the 13th of November 2014 SatNOGS won the Hackaday Prize, and officially kick-started Libre Space Foundation. Since then and with the continuous help of the diverse community that supports us, SatNOGS has expanded and evolved into a global network, boasting amazing statistics.

More specifically, at present, the SatNOGS network counts over 260+ fully operational ground stations and 120+ in testing mode. The observations come from 710+ satellites and 1340 transmitters having delivered over 122M data frames.

We could not have done this without you!

As is the case with all the amazing milestones that SatNOGS has reached, this too is a result of the collaborative work and the continuous efforts made by hundreds of ground station owners around the globe. They are the ones who contribute to this milestone and to the success of the SatNOGS project itself. By investing their time and effort in this, they schedule, organise and perform satellite observations. It is because of the community and its members that SatNOGS has expanded greatly and has become the biggest collaborative, dynamic, global, open-source network of satellite ground stations.

Do you want to join our community and learn about open-source space technologies?

We always welcome people from around the globe who wish to contribute their time, knowledge and expertise to our projects. If you are interested in joining us check out the SatNOGS knowledge-base wiki and feel free to drop us a line on the community forums and our chat. We would love to hear from you and have you onboard the SatNOGS network and community. Join SatNOGS now and be part of the next million observations!

We are thrilled to have reached 5M observations and we are also grateful to be celebrating it with all of you. All the SatNOGS contributors, satellite operators, radio amateurs, space enthusiasts, university and scientific teams. It is because of you that SatNOGS keeps expanding and growing. Thank you.

The SatNOGS network has reached 4.000.000 observations and we are so excited to share this news with you!

On the 25th of April, observation #4000000 was uploaded on the SatNOGS network by station #812-PF_DE_PL_UHF_CROSS_DIPOLE , in Pforzheim, Germany, scheduled by Fredy Damkalis and receiving data from the Argentinian PocketQube DIY-1.

As is the case with all the amazing milestones that SatNOGS has reached, this too is a result of the collaborative work and the continuous efforts made by hundreds of ground station owners around the globe. They are the ones who contribute to this milestone and to the success of the SatNOGS project itself. By investing their time and effort in this, they schedule, organise and perform satellite observations. It is because of the community and its members that SatNOGS has expanded greatly and has become the biggest collaborative, dynamic, global, open-source network of satellite ground stations.

Interesting Statistics

The SatNOGS network counts over 260+ fully operational ground stations and 140+ in testing mode. The observations come from 580+ satellites and 1140+ transmitters having delivered over 100.000.000 data frames.

Do you want to join our community and be part of the next million observations?

We always welcome people who wish to contribute their time, knowledge and expertise to our projects. If you are interested in joining us check out the SatNOGS knowledge-base wiki, and feel free to drop us a line on the community forums and our chat. We would love to hear from you and have you onboard the SatNOGS network and community. 
Join SatNOGS now!