beta Where the ISS at?

"Where the ISS at?" REST API Documentation

Overview

Welcome to the WTIA REST API! Using this service, you can get current, past, or future position of the ISS, get timezone information about a set of coordinates, and also get TLE data on the ISS.

Authentication

Currently there is no authentication required for accessing the WTIA REST API, but some endpoints likely will allow for authentication in the future. In the meantime, please note the rate limits below.

Rate Limiting

Currently requests are limited to roughly 1 per second. You can keep track of your usage by looking at the X-Rate-Limit headers returned in each response.

Responses

Some notes on responses from this API:

  • All responses default to JSON format, and only some endpoints will support other formats.
  • If you want to easily visualize a json response in a browser, you can use the parameter indent=4 to indent responses with 4 spaces.
  • All successful requests will have a 2XX response code. Error responses will have the appropriate HTTP code (something other than 2XX), along with error and status properties in the object.
  • If you need to suppress non-2XX response codes, you can include the optional parameter suppress_response_codes=true. This will tell the API to always return a 200 response, and you can inspect the response for an error property.

Support

Please feel free to use the "feedback" button on this site to communicate any questions, concerns, or requests you may have about using this API, and we'll try to respond promptly.

Endpoints

satellites

This endpoint returns a list of satellites that this API has information about, inluding a common name and NORAD catalog id. Currently, there is only one, the International Space Station. But in the future, we plan to provide more.

Example Resource URL

https://api.wheretheiss.at/v1/satellites

Example Response 
[
    {
    "name": "iss",
    "id": 25544
    }
]
Parameters

None

Resource Information

API Version 1
Response Formatjson
Rate Limited?Yes

satellites/[id]

Returns position, velocity, and other related information about a satellite for a given point in time. [id] is required and should be the NORAD catalog id. For the ISS, that id is 25544.

Example Resource URL

https://api.wheretheiss.at/v1/satellites/25544

Example Response 
{
    "name": "iss",
    "id": 25544,
    "latitude": 50.11496269845,
    "longitude": 118.07900427317,
    "altitude": 408.05526028199,
    "velocity": 27635.971970874,
    "visibility": "daylight",
    "footprint": 4446.1877699772,
    "timestamp": 1364069476,
    "daynum": 2456375.3411574,
    "solar_lat": 1.3327003598631,
    "solar_lon": 238.78610691196,
    "units": "kilometers"
}
Parameters
Name Description Required Default
units Whether to use miles or kilometers no kilometers
timestamp Optionally specify a timestamp for orbital position no current timestamp

Resource Information

API Version 1
Response Formatjson
Rate Limited?Yes

satellites/[id]/positions

Returns a list in which each entry contains position, velocity, and other related information about a satellite for a comma delimited list of timestamps (up to 10). [id] is required and should be the NORAD catalog id. For the ISS, that id is 25544.

Example Resource URL

https://api.wheretheiss.at/v1/satellites/25544/positions?timestamps=1436029892,1436029902&units=miles

Example Response 
[
    {
        "name": "iss",
        "id": 25544,
        "latitude": -24.872011788413,
        "longitude": 17.600256937812,
        "altitude": 253.3204968444,
        "velocity": 17148.926453151,
        "visibility": "daylight",
        "footprint": 2761.5254566356,
        "timestamp": 1436029892,
        "daynum": 2457208.2163426,
        "solar_lat": 22.85465108118,
        "solar_lon": 283.22043315343,
        "units": "miles"
    },
    {
        "name": "iss",
        "id": 25544,
        "latitude": -25.346134802867,
        "longitude": 18.047422455202,
        "altitude": 253.44244641825,
        "velocity": 17148.616662804,
        "visibility": "daylight",
        "footprint": 2762.1565371697,
        "timestamp": 1436029902,
        "daynum": 2457208.2164583,
        "solar_lat": 22.854640837166,
        "solar_lon": 283.17877169756,
        "units": "miles"
    }
]
Parameters
Name Description Required Default
timestamps Specify a comma delimited list of timestamps for orbital positions, limit 10 per request yes none
units Whether to use miles or kilometers no kilometers

Resource Information

API Version 1
Response Formatjson
Rate Limited?Yes

satellites/[id]/tles

Returns the TLE data for a given satellite in either json or text format

Example Resource URL (json)

https://api.wheretheiss.at/v1/satellites/25544/tles

Example Response 
{
    "requested_timestamp": 1364084064,
    "tle_timestamp": 1363892433,
    "id": "25544",
    "name": "iss",
    "header": "ISS (ZARYA)",
    "line1": "1 25544U 98067A   13080.79204657  .00024647  00000-0  40606-3 0  4540",
    "line2": "2 25544  51.6478 182.2316 0011718  59.7125  80.2831 15.52100765821132"
}
Example Resource URL (text)

https://api.wheretheiss.at/v1/satellites/25544/tles?format=text

Example Response 
ISS (ZARYA)
1 25544U 98067A   13080.79204657  .00024647  00000-0  40606-3 0  4540
2 25544  51.6478 182.2316 0011718  59.7125  80.2831 15.52100765821132
Parameters
Name Description Required Default
format response format, can be json or text no json

Resource Information

API Version 1
Response Formatjson or text
Rate Limited?Yes

coordinates/[lat,lon]

Returns position, current time offset, country code, and timezone id for a given set of coordinates in the format of longitude,latitude

Example Resource URL

https://api.wheretheiss.at/v1/coordinates/37.795517,-122.393693

Example Response 
{
    "latitude": "37.795517",
    "longitude": "-122.393693",
    "timezone_id": "America/Los_Angeles",
    "offset": -7,
    "country_code": "US",
    "map_url": "https://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.795517,-122.393693&z=4"
}
Parameters

None

Resource Information

API Version 1
Response Formatjson
Rate Limited?Yes