juliensimon/starlink-fleet-data

---
license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: "Starlink Constellation Fleet Data"
language:
- en
description: "Daily snapshots of SpaceX's Starlink mega-constellation — satellite count, orbital shells, and operational status from CelesTrak."
size_categories:
- 100K<n<1M
task_categories:
- time-series-forecasting
- tabular-classification
tags:
- space
- starlink
- satellites
- orbital-mechanics
- tle
- spacex
- constellation
- open-data
- norad
- leo
- mega-constellation
- tabular-data
- parquet
configs:
- config_name: daily_snapshots
data_files: data/daily_snapshots.parquet
---

# Starlink Fleet Data

*Part of the [Orbital Mechanics Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/orbital-mechanics-datasets-69c24caca4ab3934c9856994) collection on Hugging Face.*


Daily health snapshots of the SpaceX Starlink constellation, derived from
[CelesTrak](https://celestrak.org/) GP (General Perturbations) data.
Currently tracking **9,983** satellites (**8,539** operational,
**1,395** raising, **49** deorbiting, **8,998** ISL-capable).

## Dataset description

This dataset tracks the Starlink constellation's health over time through
**daily aggregate snapshots per orbital shell**. Each day, the pipeline fetches
the latest TLE/GP data from CelesTrak, classifies every satellite's operational
status using orbital mechanics heuristics, and appends per-shell summary
statistics to a growing time series.

The `daily_snapshots` config contains historical daily aggregates — one row per
shell per day — enabling trend analysis of constellation growth, shell fill
rates, deployment cadence, and ISL (inter-satellite laser link) rollout.

## Config: `daily_snapshots`

Historical daily aggregates per orbital shell. Currently **7,227** rows
spanning 2019-05-25 to 2026-03-28.

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `date` | datetime | Snapshot date (UTC) |
| `shell_id` | int | Shell identifier (0-4) |
| `shell_name` | string | Human-readable shell name, e.g. "Shell 3 (53deg / 550km)" |
| `total_count` | int | Total satellites in this shell |
| `operational_count` | int | Satellites at operational altitude |
| `raising_count` | int | Satellites actively raising orbit |
| `deorbiting_count` | int | Satellites deorbiting |
| `isl_operational_count` | int | ISL-capable satellites in this shell |
| `new_launches` | int | New launches detected this day (reserved) |

### Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/starlink-fleet-data", "daily_snapshots", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Constellation growth over time
growth = df.groupby("date")["operational_count"].sum()
print(growth.tail(10))

# Per-shell fill rates
latest = df[df["date"] == df["date"].max()]
for _, row in latest.iterrows():
print(f"{row['shell_name']}: {row['operational_count']} / {row['total_count']}")
```

## Status classification

Each satellite is classified into one of six statuses based on its orbital
parameters and a single-snapshot heuristic:

| Status | Criteria |
|--------|----------|
| **operational** | Altitude within the shell's operational band |
| **raising** | Below or above operational band, orbit changing toward target |
| **deorbiting** | Below operational band with strong positive mean motion derivative (orbit shrinking) or very low altitude (<300 km) |
| **decayed** | Altitude below 150 km, or stale epoch (>14 days) with altitude below 250 km |
| **anomalous** | Eccentricity > 0.005 (unusual for Starlink's near-circular orbits) |
| **unknown** | Does not match any classification rule |

The classifier uses `mean_motion_dot` (first derivative of mean motion) as a
proxy for orbital maneuvering direction: positive values indicate orbit decay
(shrinking), negative values indicate active thrust (raising).

## Shell assignment

Satellites are assigned to shells by inclination:

| Shell | Inclination | Target altitude | Inclination range |
|-------|-------------|-----------------|-------------------|
| Shell 1 (33deg) | 33.0deg | 328 km | < 38deg |
| Shell 2 (43deg) | 43.0deg | 340 km | 38deg - 48deg |
| Shell 3 (53deg) | 53.0deg | 550 km | 48deg - 60deg |
| Shell 4 (70deg) | 70.0deg | 570 km | 60deg - 80deg |
| Shell 5 (97.6deg) | 97.6deg | 560 km | > 80deg |

## Update frequency

Updated **daily at 08:00 UTC** via GitHub Actions. Each run fetches the current
CelesTrak GP snapshot, classifies all satellites, and appends the day's
per-shell aggregates to `daily_snapshots.parquet`. Re-runs on the same day are
idempotent (existing rows for that date are replaced).

## Data source

All orbital data comes from [CelesTrak](https://celestrak.org/) GP data
(NORAD/18th Space Defense Squadron). Only objects with names matching
`STARLINK-*` are included (Starshield, debris, and unidentified objects are
excluded).

## Related datasets

- [space-track-tle-history](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/space-track-tle-history) — 232M historical TLEs (1959-present)
- [space-track-satcat](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/space-track-satcat) — NORAD satellite catalog
- [space-launch-log](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/space-launch-log) — Global launch history from GCAT
- [starlink-ground-stations](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/starlink-ground-stations) — Starlink gateway and PoP locations

## See it in action

This dataset powers the fleet dashboard in [Starlink Viz](https://github.com/juliensimon/starlink-viz) — constellation growth, shell fill rates, ISL coverage, and more.

## Pipeline

Source code: [juliensimon/space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets)

## Support

If you find this dataset useful, please give it a ❤️ on the [dataset page](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/starlink-fleet-data) and share feedback in the Community tab! Also consider giving a ⭐️ to the [space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets) repo.

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{starlink_fleet_data,
author = {Simon, Julien},
title = {Starlink Fleet Data: Daily Constellation Health Snapshots},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Hugging Face},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/starlink-fleet-data},
note = {Based on NORAD/18th Space Defense Squadron GP data via CelesTrak (Dr. T.S. Kelso)}
}
```