/satellite passes

/satellite passes [name] [location] [norad_id] [remember]

Tracks a satellite’s current position, its position relative to a location, and its upcoming visible passes over that location. Defaults to the ISS if you don’t give a name or norad_id.

Usage: /satellite passes location: Flagstaff, AZ for the ISS — or add name (autocompletes as you type, or type its exact Celestrak catalog name directly, e.g. HST for the Hubble Space Telescope) or norad_id (its numeric catalog ID) to track a different satellite instead — not both name and norad_id together. Add remember: True to save a typed location as your new default.

name autocompletes ONLY from Celestrak’s own curated “~100 brightest” list — some real, valid satellites (Hubble included) don’t make that particular cut and won’t be suggested there, even though looking them up by their exact Celestrak name (or by norad_id, which always works) still succeeds.

name autocompletes from Celestrak’s own “visual” group — officially the ~100 brightest, naked-eye-visible satellites, the ones most people actually want to track — not the full catalog of 10,000+ tracked objects. Anything outside that curated list (a specific CubeSat, a particular Starlink satellite) still works, just by typing its exact Celestrak name manually instead of picking from the list.

Orbital data comes from Celestrak; if you know a satellite’s exact NORAD ID and its Celestrak data looks stale, this can also cross-check N2YO for a fresher reading (only if the bot operator configured an N2YO API key — otherwise Celestrak alone is used).

Passes are only worth watching around dawn or dusk, when the satellite is still sunlit while your own sky has gone dark — in the middle of the night, most satellites (including the ISS) are in Earth’s shadow and invisible even when technically overhead.

Parameters

Name	Required	Description
name	No	Autocompletes bright/well-known satellites; any exact Celestrak name works too. Leave blank for the…
location	No	City name, decimal, or DMS coordinates for pass predictions. Leave blank for saved default.
norad_id	No	Optional: exact NORAD catalog number, e.g. 25544 for the ISS. Skips name search.
remember	No	Also save this as your new default location (otherwise this is a one-off lookup)