While spaceships plow open spaces ...

And what exactly are they plying? I propose to break away briefly from the lyrics about flights to other stars. Why not see what flies over our head literally in some 200-400 km. And how to do it now will tell (I remind specialists).

Quite a bit of theory

Around the Earth, the spacecraft flies in an elliptical orbit with at least six parameters. As a rule, these are Keplerian orbital elements . The movement of the device is disturbed by the mass of interference, starting from the flattening of the Earth and ending ... I do not even know what. In fact, to calculate the situation far ahead is almost impossible.
Therefore, the position of each spacecraft periodically determine the tracking station. The data obtained are called “beginnings” because from them one can begin to build an orbit, at least until the next measurement.
The most common TLE data format. It looks like this:

COSMOS 2503
1 40420U 15009A 15063.01107640 -.00000062 00000-0 00000 + 0 0 9997
2 40420 97.6230 22.9307 0015305 258.2480 187.6750 15.05052215 702
')
All launches, even secret military ones, are required to register with the UN database at: www.unoosa.org/oosa
Those who speak English can read the registration rules. The most interesting thing here: www.unoosa.org/oosa/showSearch.do you can find information on any piece of iron thrown into space, but not so much there.

We look to the sky

So we wonder what flies there. This will help us:
www.calsky.com here you can set your location and see when and where the ISS or Venus will float above you.
www.heavens-above.com is a similar, but almost Russified site.
If you are reading this at night, then it is time to break away from the monitor and, imagining yourself an ancient Greek, direct your eyes to the stars (you can with binoculars).
In principle, there are many interesting things and I can already leave. But then why talk about ballistics?
Suppose we are interested in the vital activity of a certain apparatus, launched a week ago.

We are looking for the link “Database of satellites” on www.heavens-above.com , choose the Launch Year 2015, we get the list:

Order number Name Satellite status Designations Spacetrack name Orbit
40370 OBJECT A Burned in the atmosphere 2015-001-A DRAGON CRS-5
40371 OBJECT B Burned in the atmosphere 2015-001-B FALCON 9 R / B
40372 OBJECT C Burned in the atmosphere 2015-001-C DRAGON CRS-5 DEB
40373 OBJECT D Burned in the atmosphere 2015-001-D DRAGON CRS-5 DEB
40374 MUOS 3 In Earth Orbit 2015-002-A MUOS 3 5592 x 35 788 km; 16.7 ° Visible spans All spans Approaching other objects
40375 ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R / B In Earth Orbit 2015-002-B ATLAS 5 CENTAUR R / B 3742 x 35194 km; 18.9 ° Visible spans All convergence spans with other objects

We are interested in this: 40420 OBJECT A In Earth orbit 2015-009-A COSMOS 2503
Under the link more Run Date (UTC) 02.27.2015
Where is our Barsik now?

Let's go celestrak.com further Current Data further Last 30 Days' Launches in total . We are looking for three lines, indicated by me at the beginning of the post, save them to the txt file.
Next, on www.stoff.pl, download the program Orbitron version 3.71 (too old, but it works even under the figure eight). Install, open, click Download TLE, feed our file and watch the topic of the post (if we don’t see, check the tick opposite COSMOS 2503 at the top right).
Some objects, such as the ISS (ISS), are already loaded, you can display several at once.

Blog for overseas overseas colleagues planet4589.org come across interesting things, knowledge of the language is welcome.