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Use NASA’s Spot the Station for International Space Station (ISS) flyover notifications, Space Launch Now for a worldwide rocket-launch calendar, ESA’s Space Debris Office portal for predicted satellite and rocket-body re-entries, and Space-Track.org when you need technical decay data. These are different alert jobs: a visible pass, a launch countdown, and an uncontrolled re-entry are not interchangeable events. A dependable setup normally combines two services rather than expecting one app to cover every orbit and launch.
Quick recommendations
| What you want to know | Best starting point | Why it fits | What it does not replace |
|---|---|---|---|
| When the ISS will pass over your location | NASA Spot the Station | Official NASA app with location-specific flyover schedules, real-time tracking and push notifications on iOS and Android. | A multi-agency launch calendar or specialist re-entry tracking. |
| When rockets launch anywhere in the world | Space Launch Now | Broad launch schedule, live countdowns, mission information and alerts covering major agencies and providers. | A precise prediction of whether a launch will remain on schedule. |
| Whether a satellite or rocket body may re-enter | ESA Space Debris Office re-entry predictions | European Space Agency predictions are updated as tracking data changes and include upcoming and past events. | A guaranteed impact location or an instant phone alert without registration. |
| Orbital decay and machine-readable technical data | Space-Track.org | Authoritative catalog, orbital-element, decay and re-entry products for registered users. | A simple consumer notification experience. |
Heavens-Above is a useful general-purpose pass predictor, while ISS Detector is a convenient mobile option for pass notifications. Treat both as secondary choices and verify their current platform support and features before relying on them.
Match the service to the event
“Orbit alert” can mean several different things. A bright ISS pass is a visibility calculation for one observer. A rocket launch is a scheduled event whose time can move by minutes or days. A re-entry is an atmospheric event whose final time and location remain uncertain until late in the descent. Choosing by event type prevents false confidence.
Recommended Free Tools
| Alert type | Typical information | Best service category | How location matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visible spacecraft pass | Date, start and end times, duration, direction, altitude and visibility conditions. | NASA Spot the Station; Heavens-Above; ISS Detector. | High. A pass visible from one city may be below the horizon or in daylight elsewhere. |
| Rocket launch | Mission, vehicle, launch site, countdown and status changes. | Space Launch Now or an agency’s own launch notices. | Moderate for watching; high for local sonic-boom, road-closure or viewing-site planning. |
| Satellite or rocket-body re-entry | Predicted time window, object identity, orbit track and possible footprint. | ESA re-entry portal; Space-Track.org for technical users. | Useful for mapping a possible ground track, but never a promise of impact at a particular address. |
| Conjunction, decay or catalog analysis | Orbital elements, decay estimates, catalog records and technical products. | Space-Track.org. | Usually supplied as orbital data rather than a consumer-friendly local notification. |
NASA Spot the Station: the clearest ISS flyover alert
NASA describes Spot the Station as an official app for tracking and receiving notifications when the International Space Station passes over a selected location. NASA’s FAQ says it provides real-time tracking, flyover schedules and push notifications containing the date, time, duration and visibility conditions for the preferred location. The app is available for iOS and Android.
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What you receive
- Location-specific upcoming-pass times rather than a global ISS orbit list.
- Pass duration and visibility information to help decide whether a viewing opportunity is worthwhile.
- Push notifications before eligible passes, subject to the phone’s notification permissions and operating-system battery settings.
- Real-time tracking when you want to follow the station outside a notification window.
How to set it up
- Install Spot the Station from the iOS or Android app store.
- Allow location access, or select a preferred viewing location when the app offers that choice. A correct city is essential because pass times change with latitude and longitude.
- Enable notifications in the app and in the phone’s system settings.
- Review the next listed passes and open an individual pass to see its time, duration and visibility conditions.
- For a first observation, choose a pass with a long duration and favorable visibility rather than relying only on the headline time.
Where it stops
Spot the Station is optimized for seeing the ISS. It is not a worldwide rocket-launch calendar, and it is not a satellite-re-entry warning service. Installing it will not tell you when an unrelated spacecraft is expected to burn up.
Space Launch Now: a broad launch calendar and countdown app
Space Launch Now’s Google Play listing describes real-time launch schedules, live countdowns, mission data and alerts for SpaceX, NASA, ULA, ISRO, JAXA, Roscosmos, ESA and other major providers. That breadth makes it the strongest single starting point when your main question is “What is launching, and when?” rather than “What will pass over my house?”
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Useful features
- A consolidated calendar across agencies and launch providers.
- Live countdowns that make an upcoming event easy to follow.
- Mission pages with vehicle and payload context.
- Alerts for schedule changes and launch milestones, depending on the current app version and the permissions you grant.
Set expectations about launch times
A countdown is a current schedule, not a guarantee. Weather, range availability, spacecraft readiness and technical reviews can move a launch after an alert has been sent. Because this is a third-party app listing, check the current store description, release notes and notification-permission screen before depending on it for a time-critical viewing plan.
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Practical setup
- Install the app from your device’s current store listing and inspect which notification categories it requests.
- Turn on launch and schedule-change notifications, then disable categories you do not need so important updates are not buried.
- Open the mission page for any launch you plan to watch and note the launch site’s time zone.
- On launch day, check the countdown shortly before the window opens; do not rely on an earlier calendar entry alone.
- If the launch is safety-critical or travel-dependent, confirm the status through the responsible agency or range operator as well.
ESA’s re-entry portal: the specialist source for falling spacecraft
The European Space Agency’s Space Debris Office publishes predictions for monitored re-entries through its web portal. ESA says predictions are constantly updated as new tracking information arrives and that free registration is required. The service covers upcoming and past re-entries and explains the associated time-window and impact-footprint uncertainty. Open the portal at https://reentry.esoc.esa.int/reentry.
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How to use it
- Create the free portal account and sign in.
- Open the list of upcoming re-entries and select the object of interest.
- Read the predicted re-entry window, object description and any displayed ground-track or footprint information.
- Check the update time each time you revisit the event. A newer estimate supersedes an older one.
- Use the track as a regional screening tool, not as an address-level impact forecast.
Why the time window moves
An uncontrolled object is slowed by the upper atmosphere, but the density of that atmosphere changes with solar activity and other conditions. Tracking observations also arrive at different times and with different precision. The result is a window that narrows as re-entry approaches; it is normal for the predicted date and hour to shift.
What a footprint means
A footprint describes where surviving fragments could potentially reach if the object breaks up over a particular portion of its ground track. It does not mean that every point inside the shape will be hit, nor that an object will necessarily survive to the ground. ESA presents the information as a prediction with model and tracking uncertainty.
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Space-Track.org: authoritative data for technical users
Space-Track.org provides satellite catalog records, orbital elements and satellite-decay or re-entry products to registered users. NASA’s Conjunction Assessment and Risk Analysis (CARA) FAQ identifies it as a service hosted and maintained by the 18th Space Defense Squadron and says it provides re-entry predictions to approved users.
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- Satellite operators who need catalog and orbital-element data.
- Researchers performing independent orbit or decay analysis.
- Advanced observers who can work with technical records instead of a simplified phone alert.
Account and workflow
- Request and validate a user account through Space-Track.org.
- Review the site’s product documentation and usage requirements before downloading data.
- Use catalog and orbital-element products to identify the object and its current orbit.
- Check decay and re-entry products repeatedly; a single record is not a permanent prediction.
- Translate the orbital information with appropriate software or expertise before making a public-safety decision.
The account requirement and technical presentation make Space-Track less approachable than a consumer app. Its strength is data provenance and depth, not push-notification convenience.
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Heavens-Above and ISS Detector for additional pass predictions
An independent comparison characterizes Heavens-Above as a strong all-around prediction tool and ISS Detector as a convenient mobile option for pass notifications, while identifying Spot the Station as the simplest official ISS choice. These services can be useful when you want broader satellite-pass coverage or a different viewing interface. Platform support, notification behavior and feature sets can change, so verify the current app or website before treating either as your primary alert channel.
When a second pass predictor helps
- You want passes for satellites other than the ISS.
- You need a web view alongside a phone app.
- You are comparing predictions for an unusual location or a short observing trip.
- You want an independent cross-check before setting up a camera or telescope.
Do not interpret a difference of a minute or a few degrees between services as proof that one is broken. They may use different orbital-element update times, horizon masks or visibility assumptions.
Is there one app for launches, passes and re-entries?
Not one service in this group covers all three jobs with equal authority and usability. A practical combination is:
- Spot the Station for an official, local ISS pass alert.
- Space Launch Now for a multi-agency launch schedule and countdown.
- ESA’s re-entry portal for monitored satellite and rocket-body re-entries.
- Space-Track.org only when you need technical decay data or operate in a professional research context.
This division also prevents a common mistake: treating a launch-calendar notification as evidence that a satellite will be visible from your location, or treating a pass-prediction app as an authority on an uncontrolled re-entry.
How uncertain are re-entry alerts?
Re-entry forecasting is inherently probabilistic. ESA’s current space-safety guidance describes a commonly accepted casualty-probability threshold of 1 in 10,000 for a single uncontrolled re-entry. That threshold is a risk-management benchmark, not a prediction that a particular person or building will be struck.
Quick Recap
| Figure | Qualification | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
| About one spacecraft re-enters Earth’s atmosphere each month | Average stated in an ESA ERS-2 release published in 2024. | A long-term average, not a promise that one event will occur on a fixed monthly date. |
| More than 23,600 human-made objects, totaling about 33,200 metric tons | ESA portal summary for the period from the start of the Space Age through January 2016. | Historical cumulative re-entries, not the number currently at risk. |
| 1-in-10,000 casualty-probability threshold | Commonly accepted threshold cited in ESA space-safety guidance for one uncontrolled re-entry. | A criterion used to assess public risk, not an impact-point forecast. |
What to do with a changing prediction
- Record the portal’s update time whenever you share a prediction.
- Use the newest window, not a screenshot or repost with no timestamp.
- Expect uncertainty to remain substantial until late in the event.
- Do not travel, evacuate or issue a public warning solely from a consumer app notification; follow official civil-protection or aviation/maritime notices for your area.
Build a reliable alert setup
For an ISS viewing plan
- Set the correct location in Spot the Station.
- Allow push notifications and remove battery restrictions that would prevent background alerts.
- Open the pass details the day before and again shortly before the start time.
- Go outside early enough to account for walking to an unobstructed site; the listed duration includes the entire visible opportunity, not just the brightest moment.
- If clouds obscure the pass, check the next listed opportunity rather than assuming the station has disappeared from orbit.
For a rocket launch
- Add the mission in Space Launch Now and enable schedule-change alerts.
- Convert the launch-site time to your local time and verify whether daylight or local horizon will affect viewing.
- Check the countdown close to the opening of the launch window.
- Keep a second, official agency status page available for major changes, because third-party alerts can lag or depend on device permissions.
- Plan for a scrub: weather and technical holds can move the event without indicating a problem with the app.
For a possible re-entry
- Use ESA’s portal for the public prediction and note the object name, window and update time.
- If you need orbital details, consult Space-Track.org after obtaining the required account.
- Compare the predicted ground track with your region only as a broad geographic filter.
- Recheck the event as the window approaches; earlier estimates can become obsolete.
- Rely on local authorities for any action involving people, property, airspace or maritime operations.
Common problems and fixes
No ISS notification arrives
- Confirm both app-level and system-level notifications.
- Check that the selected location is correct and that the app is not restricted from background activity.
- Open the schedule manually; a pass may fail the app’s visibility criteria even though the station is technically overhead.
A launch time keeps changing
- Refresh the mission page and read the status note rather than trusting an old countdown screenshot.
- Check for weather, range or technical-review changes.
- Keep the original launch window in your calendar only as a planning reference.
The re-entry window looks alarmingly broad
- That is expected early in an uncontrolled event.
- Look for the latest update timestamp and whether the window has narrowed.
- Remember that a window is not an impact point and a footprint is not a list of guaranteed strikes.
Two pass predictors disagree
- Compare their orbital-element update times and location settings.
- Check whether one uses civil twilight, an elevation cutoff or another visibility rule.
- Use an official source for the event that matters most, and treat the second service as a cross-check.
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