juliensimon/constellation-census

Constellation Census

Credit: NASA

Part of a dataset collection on Hugging Face.

Dataset description

Daily census of active satellite constellations with orbital shell classification. Tracks satellites from CelesTrak GP data across LEO mega-constellations (Starlink, OneWeb, Kuiper, Qianfan, Hulianwang), navigation systems (GPS, Galileo, BeiDou, GLONASS), communications fleets (Iridium, Globalstar, ORBCOMM, SES, Intelsat, Eutelsat, Telesat), and Earth observation (Planet, Spire).

The satellite constellation landscape is undergoing a historic transformation. Legacy GEO communications operators -- each operating dozens of spacecraft at 35,786 km altitude -- are being joined by LEO mega-constellations deploying thousands of satellites at altitudes below 600 km. Starlink alone now exceeds all other constellations combined in satellite count. Meanwhile, China's Qianfan and Hulianwang programs are rapidly deploying their own broadband mega-constellations.

This census is valuable for spectrum coordination, space traffic management, competitive intelligence in the satellite communications market, and as input to orbital debris environment models that depend on accurate population counts by orbit regime.

This dataset is suitable for tabular classification, time-series forecasting tasks.

Schema

Column	Type	Description	Sample	Null %
norad_id	int32	NORAD catalog number -- sequential integer assigned by the 18th Space Defense Squadron; primary key for cross-referencing with TLE databases and SATCAT	44714	0.0%
name	str	Satellite common name from the NORAD catalog (e.g. 'STARLINK-1234', 'NAVSTAR 78', 'ONEWEB-0001')	STARLINK-1008	0.0%
constellation	str	Lowercase constellation identifier (e.g. 'starlink', 'oneweb', 'gps', 'galileo'); matches the keys in the pipeline's CONSTELLATIONS config	starlink	0.0%
operator	str	Name of the constellation operator or agency (e.g. 'SpaceX', 'Eutelsat OneWeb', 'USSF', 'EU/ESA')	SpaceX	0.0%
country	str	ISO 3166-based two-letter country code of the operating nation (e.g. 'US', 'GB', 'CN', 'EU')	US	0.0%
orbit_type	str	Orbit regime: LEO (low Earth orbit, <2000 km), MEO (medium, 2000-35000 km), GEO (geostationary, ~35786 km)	LEO	0.0%
shell_id	int64	Integer shell index within the constellation (0-based); for single-shell constellations always 0; for Starlink 0-4 mapping to the five inclination/altitude shells	2	0.0%
shell_name	str	Human-readable shell label encoding inclination and target altitude (e.g. 'Shell 3 (53 deg/550km)', 'GPS (55 deg/20200km)')	Shell 3 (53°/550km)	0.0%
altitude_km	float64	Perigee altitude above Earth's surface in km, derived from TLE mean motion and eccentricity; for near-circular orbits this approximates the operational altitude	410.68	0.0%
inclination	float64	Orbital inclination in degrees (0-180); angle between the orbital plane and Earth's equatorial plane; determines ground coverage latitudes	53.1516	0.0%
eccentricity	float64	Orbital eccentricity (dimensionless, 0-1); 0 = perfectly circular; operational LEO satellites typically <0.001; values >0.005 are flagged as anomalous	0.00042486	0.0%
mean_motion	float64	Mean motion in revolutions per day from the TLE; LEO ~14-17 rev/day, MEO ~2 rev/day, GEO ~1 rev/day; related to semi-major axis via Kepler's third law	15.53529794	0.0%
status	str	Operational classification: operational (within shell altitude band), raising (maneuvering to target, LEO only), deorbiting (actively decaying, LEO only), decayed (below 150 km), anomalous (high eccentricity), non-operational (MEO/GEO outside band)	raising	0.0%
launch_year	int64	Year the satellite was launched, extracted from the COSPAR international designator; 0 if the designator was missing or malformed	2019	0.0%
epoch_utc	datetime64[us, UTC]	Reference epoch of the TLE set (UTC); orbital elements are most accurate at this moment; position error grows roughly 1-3 km/day for LEO objects	2026-07-14 13:16:45.066432+00:00	0.0%

Quick stats

• 12,885 satellites across 19 constellations
• 11,601 operational
• Top constellations: starlink (10,786), oneweb (651), kuiper (393), qianfan (238), hulianwang (172)
• 2,147 daily snapshot rows (2026-03-23 to 2026-07-15)

Usage

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/constellation-census", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

from datasets import load_dataset

# Per-satellite data
ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/constellation-census", "latest_satellites", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Constellation sizes
sizes = df.groupby("constellation")["norad_id"].count().sort_values(ascending=False)
print(sizes)

# Daily growth trends
daily = load_dataset("juliensimon/constellation-census", "daily_snapshots", split="train")
df_daily = daily.to_pandas()
starlink_growth = df_daily[df_daily["constellation"] == "starlink"][["date", "total_count"]]

# Altitude distribution by orbit type
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
for ot in ["LEO", "MEO", "GEO"]:
    sub = df[df["orbit_type"] == ot]
    plt.hist(sub["altitude_km"], bins=50, alpha=0.6, label=ot)
plt.xlabel("Altitude (km)")
plt.ylabel("Satellite Count")
plt.title("Satellite Altitude Distribution by Orbit Type")
plt.legend()
plt.show()

Data source

https://celestrak.org/

Update schedule

Daily at 09:00 UTC via GitHub Actions

Related datasets

• juliensimon/starlink-fleet-data

• juliensimon/space-track-satcat

• juliensimon/space-track-tle-history

• juliensimon/space-launch-log

• juliensimon/gcat

• juliensimon/gcat-satcat

• juliensimon/launch-cost

• juliensimon/launch-vehicles

If you find this dataset useful, please consider giving it a like on Hugging Face. It helps others discover it.

About the author

Created by Julien Simon — AI Operating Partner at Fortino Capital. Part of the Space Datasets collection.

Citation

@dataset{constellation_census,
  title = {Constellation Census},
  author = {juliensimon},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/constellation-census},
  publisher = {Hugging Face}
}

License

celestrak-usage-policy