May 19, 2026 – “Unable to update orbital data” message
With the advent of large satellite constellations the load on the servers referenced by the app for orbital data updates has increased significantly. To mitigate this, some servers have restricted updates to only when new data is available. Data that is still current will not be updated with the “Unable to update orbital data” message being displayed. The orbital tracking will still be current. To prevent the message go to the app Settings > Preferences and turn Auto Update off. Periodically manually refresh the satellite data from the Satellites tab. Generally there is no need to update satellites more than every few days for low earth orbit satellites and weekly for higher orbit satellites.
January 13, 2026 – Server Unavailable Changes
The reference source for several satellite groups have changed which prevent the app from updating the orbital elements for some satellite groups. Satellite groups that have changed are shown with a yellow information indicator in the Satellites list. Edit the URL as shown below to restore satellite orbital data updates.
From the app Settings > Orbital Elements edit the URLs for the following satellite groups:
| Group | URL |
|---|---|
| Amateur Radio | https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/gp.php?GROUP=amateur&FORMAT=tle |
| Starlink | https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/gp.php?GROUP=starlink&FORMAT=tle |
| Iridium | https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/gp.php?GROUP=iridium&FORMAT=tle |
| Iridium NEXT | https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/gp.php?GROUP=iridium-NEXT&FORMAT=tle |
| Orbcomm | https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/gp.php?GROUP=orbcomm&FORMAT=tle |
| Globalstar | https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/gp.php?GROUP=globalstar&FORMAT=tle |
June 20, 2021 – Amateur Radio Unable to update orbital data
The server the app references for amateur radio satellites has changed. The URL can be updated from Settings > Orbital Elements > Amateur Radio and changing the server URL to http://lansing182.amsat.org/tle/current/nasabare.txt. AMSAT has advised that this is just a temporary change and will change back in a few days when their server upgrades are complete.
November 15, 2020 – Space X Crew Dragon Tracking
The Crew Dragon missions appear under the “Space Station Missions” group.
June 2019 – StarLink satellite tracking
The StarLink satellite constellation can be added to the app. From Settings > Orbital Elements > Add new use the following URL:
https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/gp.php?GROUP=starlink&FORMAT=tle
See the online user’s guide for more information on how to add satellites
GoSatWatch User’s Guide – Adding Orbital Elements
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