Overview
The TLE API provides up-to-date orbital data for satellites currently orbiting Earth, sourced from NORAD datasets. Each satellite entry includes its TLE data, name, and satellite catalog number, which you can use with orbital mechanics libraries to calculate a satellite current position. It is free and requires no authentication, making it a great starting point for space and satellite tracking projects.
Beginner Tip
TLE data contains the orbital parameters needed to predict a satellite position. Feed the returned line1 and line2 strings into a library like satellite.js in JavaScript or sgp4 in Python to calculate where the satellite is right now.
Measurement Record
What actually happened when we called this API from our own infrastructure. Every value below was recorded by the request, not copied from the provider's documentation.
- Request
- GET https://tle.ivanstanojevic.me/api/tle/?search=ISS
- Result
- HTTP 200 · application/json · 6,801 bytes
- Response time
- 1694 ms (median of 3) · fastest 1613 ms
- Transport
- TLSv1.3 · TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 · certificate issued by Let's Encrypt
- Browser CORS
- Allowed — Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
- Served by
- Apache
- Recorded
- 2026-08-10
Fields Returned
Top-level fields present in the response we captured, with the type and value we actually received.
| Field | Type | Value received |
|---|---|---|
| @context | string (url) | https://www.w3.org/ns/hydra/context.jsonld |
| @id | string (url) | https://tle.ivanstanojevic.me/api/tle/ |
| @type | string | Tle[] |
| totalItems | integer | 30 |
| member | array | [1 item] |
| parameters | object | {5 fields} |
| view | object | {5 fields} |
Captured Response
Captured from a real request to https://tle.ivanstanojevic.me/api/tle/?search=ISS on 2026-08-10. Long arrays and nested objects are truncated to keep the shape readable.
{
"@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/hydra/context.jsonld",
"@id": "https://tle.ivanstanojevic.me/api/tle/",
"@type": "Tle[]",
"totalItems": 30,
"member": [
{
"@id": "https://tle.ivanstanojevic.me/api/tle/25544",
"@type": "Tle",
"satelliteId": 25544,
"name": "ISS (ZARYA)",
"date": "2026-08-09T20:37:29+00:00",
"line1": "1 25544U 98067A 26221.85937483 .00004201 00000+0 83247-4 0 9994",
"line2": "2 25544 51.6326 34.4681 0007373 30.2451 329.8962 15.49397757580072"
}
],
"parameters": {
"search": "ISS",
"sort": "popularity",
"sort-dir": "desc",
"page": 1,
"page-size": 20
},
"view": {
"@id": "https://tle.ivanstanojevic.me/api/tle/?search=ISS&page=1",
"@type": "PartialCollectionView",
"first": "https://tle.ivanstanojevic.me/api/tle/?search=ISS&page=1",
"next": "https://tle.ivanstanojevic.me/api/tle/?search=ISS&page=2",
"last": "https://tle.ivanstanojevic.me/api/tle/?search=ISS&page=2"
}
} Field Reference
satelliteId NORAD catalog number uniquely identifying the satellite. name Official name of the satellite. date ISO 8601 date when this TLE data was generated or last updated. line1 First line of the Two-Line Element set containing epoch and orbital decay data. line2 Second line of the TLE set containing inclination, eccentricity, and other orbital elements. Implementation Example
Request skeleton. The URL below is this API's documentation page, not a live endpoint — swap in the path you need from the provider's docs before running it.
const url = "https://tle.ivanstanojevic.me/";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data); What Can You Build?
Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.
How This API Fails
We deliberately sent this API a broken request and recorded exactly what came back on 2026-08-10. Knowing the shape of an error before you hit it makes error handling much easier to write.
{
"response": {
"message": "No route found for \"GET https://tle.ivanstanojevic.me/api/tle/apisscore-nonexistent-path\""
}
} Common Errors & Troubleshooting
Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.
Measured Score Breakdown
Live HTTP request to the API endpoint
Fully tested on Aug 10, 2026
Technical Specifications
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