NORAD Tracking
publicly available). Columns with a '+' can have either a plus sign, a minus sign,
or a space and columns with a '-' can have either a plus or minus sign (if the rest
of the field is not blank).
Data for each satellite consists of three lines in the following format:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
1 NNNNNU NNNNNAAA NNNNN.NNNNNNNN +.NNNNNNNN +NNNNN-N +NNNNN-N N NNNNN
2 NNNNN NNN.NNNN NNN.NNNN NNNNNNN NNN.NNNN NNN.NNNN NN.NNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Line 0 is a twenty-four character name (to be consistent with the name length in
the NORAD SATCAT).
Lines 1 and 2 are the standard Two-Line Orbital Element Set Format identical to
that used by NORAD and NASA. The format description is:
Line 1
Column Description
01 Line Number of Element Data
03-07 Satellite Number
08 Classification (U=Unclassified)
10-11 International Designator (Last two digits of launch year)
12-14 International Designator (Launch number of the year)
15-17 International Designator (Piece of the launch)
19-20 Epoch Year (Last two digits of year)
21-32 Epoch (Day of the year and fractional portion of the day)
34-43 First Time Derivative of the Mean Motion
45-52 Second Time Derivative of Mean Motion (decimal point assumed)
54-61 BSTAR drag term (decimal point assumed)
63 Ephemeris type
65-68 Element number
69 Checksum (Modulo 10) (Letters, blanks, periods, plus signs = 0;
minus signs = 1)
Line 2
Column Description
01 Line Number of Element Data
03-07 Satellite Number
09-16 Inclination [Degrees]
18-25 Right Ascension of the Ascending Node [Degrees]
K-2