Ride-share Identifier beta
Which cataloged object is your satellite? Compare a set of candidate NORAD objects from the same launch: current orbital elements, automatic drag-family grouping, and element evolution since deployment.
Enter the NORAD catalog IDs of the candidate objects (typically all objects cataloged from one launch).
Example: ?ids=69897,69941,100100,69905,69910
Current elements & drag families
| Fam | NORAD | Name | Mean motion rev/day | Perigee km | Apogee km | Ecc | Incl deg | B* | RCS | Epoch age h | TLEs |
|---|
Drag signature: perigee altitude vs B* (log scale). Objects cluster into drag families — family membership is usually more robust than any ranking within a family.
Along-track separation
Signed along-track offset relative to the reference object (positive = leading). Positions use the element set nearest to the displayed time, not the latest one. The shaded era predates the first available element set — geometry there is backward extrapolation and unreliable for ordering claims.
Candidates only, live positions. Dot colors do not yet match family colors.
Launch group evolution
OPM overlay — paste the rideshare OPM to draw predicted ejection ghosts
Every cataloged object of the launch at the scrubbed time (shared clock with the along-track module above): x = along-track km relative to the group median (wraps at ±half orbit), y = mean SMA offset from the group median. Companions in gray, candidates in family colors. Along-track position is the time-integral of the SMA offset, so unpowered objects must lie on a smooth monotone curve — points off the curve are powered, anomalous, or misattributed to this launch. Instantaneous cross-track is not shown: the train is a shallow helix (plane spread from differential nodal precession tracks the same Δa that sets along-track position), so it flaps at orbit period by construction.
Ejection kick vectors
| # | Deployment | Gap s | |ΔV| m/s | Radial m/s | Along m/s | Cross m/s | Check m/s | Note |
|---|
Absolute ejection kick per deployment: the stage's velocity is reconstructed by solving the ballistic arc between consecutive release positions (shooting method over the J2 field), then subtracted from the object's OPM velocity. Node self-consistency across the sequence gives an effective accuracy of ~±0.2 m/s per component (the Check column; large values flag stage burns in an adjacent gap). Radial ≈ cross throughout — all lateral ejection lies on one fixed dispenser axis, 45° between radial and orbit-normal, held for the entire sequence. Rows without a usable incoming arc (long or burn-contaminated gaps) are estimated from the outgoing arc and carry a small recoil bias.
Drag character
| Candidate | ȧ m/day | Var % | E/L |
|---|
Windowed SMA decay rate (±2.5 day fits) over the catalog era. A steady line means constant projected area — stable attitude or fast tumble. A wandering line means slowly varying area — slow tumble or precession (and untrustworthy drag-model correlation). Early/late ratio well above 1 is a detumble signature: higher, noisier drag after release settling to a cleaner rate.
Element history
Each dot is a published element set (epoch marker). Circularization, differential drag fan-out and maneuver kinks are visible here before they show in single-epoch comparisons. Element values are SGP4 mean elements — do not compare them field-by-field against operator OPM/osculating elements.
Pass planner
| Object | AOS UTC | Dur min | Max El | AOS→LOS Az | Session |
|---|
A “pair session” marks passes of same-family objects close enough in time (overlap or gap under 15 min) to cover with one antenna session — families are dynamically near-identical, so test them together. Predictions use each object's latest element set; along-track error grows with element-set age. Click a pass row to open it in the Doppler discriminator below.
Doppler discriminator
Predicted received-frequency offset for every candidate over the selected pass window. One S-curve will match a real recording; near-identical family pairs produce near-overlapping curves — such passes cannot discriminate within the pair.