Orbiwatch

My own product: live satellite films for space companies. Pick a satellite and a place, and the film is computed from today’s orbit every time it plays, on a website, a lobby screen or in a deck.

What was delivered

  1. The site: a live film for South Australian missions
    The site: a live film for South Australian missions
  2. The Studio: satellite, place and story in one workspace
    The Studio: satellite, place and story in one workspace
  3. Ground track: the path beneath the satellite
    Ground track: the path beneath the satellite
  4. The film on a phone
    The film on a phone
  5. A day of coverage over Adelaide
    A day of coverage over Adelaide
  6. Constellation: satellites launched together
    Constellation: satellites launched together
  7. A place page: six US space centres
    A place page: six US space centres
  8. The Studio on a phone
    The Studio on a phone

A mission film made as a render is out of date the day the satellite moves. Orbiwatch turns public orbital data into films that stay true: pick a satellite, a place and a story, and the film is computed from today’s orbit every time it plays.

It’s my own product, live at orbiwatch.com. It’s for space companies, launch providers and agencies that explain their missions to investors, customers and the public, and for visitor centres, precincts and classrooms that want the next pass on a screen. The same film runs on a website, a lobby screen, a phone or in a pitch.

How it came together

  1. Real orbits, computed each time

    Positions are computed in the browser with SGP4 from the latest public orbital elements: CelesTrak first and SatNOGS as a second source, and the copy at the edge is never more than 15 minutes old. Positions and passes were checked against Skyfield before launch.

    The catalogue holds 55 satellites, from Fleet Space’s Centauri and Myriota to Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, US, European, Japanese and Chinese missions. Any other satellite can be added by its NORAD number.

  2. A Studio for the person making the pitch

    The Studio is a workspace with a rail, a stage and an inspector. Pick a satellite and one of 50 named sites across seven regions, or any place by its coordinates, then a story. The brand colour and logo go on the film.

    Seven one-click starting points set it up for the moment: a website hero, launch day, a milestone post, an investor deck, a trade show, a lobby kiosk or a classroom.

  3. Five stories from one orbit

    • The orbit: the satellite on a 3D globe, where it is now.
    • Tonight overhead: a sky chart of the next pass over the place.
    • The ground track: the path beneath it, pass after pass.
    • A day of coverage: every pass over the place in 24 hours.
    • Constellation: satellites launched together, and where each one is now.

  4. A page for every place

    Eight place pages, for seven countries and regions plus SpaceX’s sites, put satellites over places people know, from Kennedy Space Center to the sky over Adelaide.

    Every satellite in the catalogue has sourced facts. They show on the place pages, in an About section for each satellite, and in the films.

  5. One film for every screen

    • A live website embed, locked to your domain.
    • Display mode for a lobby TV, kiosk or event screen: one signed link, every story in rotation, running on its own for weeks.
    • Present from the Studio, with on-screen controls for live time, 60x and 600x, the day’s passes, the overflight layer and the facts.
    • Six shapes: website, phone, TV 16:9, kiosk 9:16, ultrawide 21:9 and square.
    • 1080p MP4 exports of the orbit, tonight overhead and the ground track.

  6. Calm, fast and careful

    The look is a Swiss atlas printed at night: a charcoal globe, hairline coastlines and one terracotta line for the satellite.

    Films render off the main thread, in a Web Worker on an offscreen canvas, and the globe runs on three.js with WebGPU and a WebGL fallback. In lab tests on a throttled phone the home page scores 98 on Lighthouse.

    It’s built to WCAG 2.2 AA, with automated accessibility checks on every page in every release. Studio accounts sign in with an email link and an authenticator code, and it all runs on Cloudflare, with no servers.

The outcome

Orbiwatch is live at orbiwatch.com, with 55 satellites, eight place pages, five stories, the Studio and three ways to buy.

A Living Film for a website is US$200 a month per film. Display is US$410 a month per screen. A Mission Film, a custom launch film designed with me on the same live engine, starts at US$4,800. Plans are monthly, and prices also show in AUD, EUR, JPY and CNY.

Continue with Unveil3D

My 3D showcase app for sports clubs. A volunteer uploads media-day photos and Unveil3D builds a broadcast-style scene, with the cut-outs, layout and sponsors done for them.

Read the case

More work like this

Match Night A live 3D podium for a netball club: five players under the lights, partners on an LED band and the mascot on the sofa, in about 2 MB. Dr Sophia AI The product site for a governed clinical decision-support platform of 42 agents. Research across six buyer groups, a private project portal and a custom design system.
Vlad Kutepov in an orange sweater, sitting in a leather lounge chair with a book

Planning something similar?

See how each service is scoped and priced, or answer a few questions and leave with a brief you can send.

Start your brief My services
All projects