CELESTRAK API

The API-based service appears not to provide OID lists. Accordingly, as of version 0.150 the "direct" attribute defaults to true, and is deprecated. Six months from the release of 0.150 this attribute will warn on the first use; six months after that it will warn on all uses, and six months after that any use will be fatal.

DEPRECATION NOTICE: IRIDIUM STATUS

As of version 0.143, any access of attribute "url_iridium_status_mccants" is fatal.

Of course, since there are no longer any Iridium Classic satellites in service, all the Iridium status machinery is a candidate for deprecation and removal. Stay tuned.

RETIREMENT OF NASA HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT WEB SITE

Unfortunately, so far I have found no replacement source for ISS TLEs. The redirection page notes the availability of state vectors in both text and XML, at "https://nasa-public-data.s3.amazonaws.com/iss-coords/current/ISS_OEM/ISS.OEM_J2K_EPH.txt" and "https://nasa-public-data.s3.amazonaws.com/iss-coords/current/ISS_OEM/ISS.OEM_J2K_EPH.xml" respectively. I may provide download access to these, but it will be a while until a state-vector analog to Astro::Coord::ECI::TLE is written, if it ever is.

The functional result of this is that the "spaceflight()" method gives a 403 error as of February 28 2021. If some reasonable replacement becomes known to me, I will use it; otherwise this method will be removed. My usual removal schedule calls for the method to warn on the first use September 2021, warn on every use March 2022, die September 2022, and be removed completely March 2023.

Methods

$st = Astro::SpaceTrack->new ( ... )

This method instantiates a new Space-Track accessor object. If any arguments are passed, the "set()" method is called on the new object, and passed the arguments given.

For both historical and operational reasons, this method can get the "username" and "password" values from multiple locations. It uses the first defined value it finds in the following list:

$resp = $st->amsat ()

This method downloads current orbital elements from the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation's web page, <https://www.amsat.org/>. This lists satellites of interest to radio amateurs, and appears to be updated weekly.

No Space Track account is needed to access this data, even if the 'direct' attribute is false. As of version 0.150 the setting of the 'with_name' attribute is honored even if the 'direct' attribute is true.

You can specify options as either command-type options (e.g. "amsat( '-file', 'foo.dat' )") or as a leading hash reference (e.g. "amsat( { file => 'foo.dat' } )"). If you specify the hash reference, option names must be specified in full, without the leading '-', and the argument list will not be parsed for command-type options. If you specify command-type options, they may be abbreviated, as long as the abbreviation is unique. Errors in either sort result in an exception being thrown.

The legal options are:

 -file
   specifies the name of the cache file. If the data
   on line are newer than the modification date of
   the cache file, the cache file will be updated.
   Otherwise the data will be returned from the file.
   Either way the content of the file and the content
   of the returned HTTP::Response object end up the
   same.
    

On a successful return, the response object will contain headers

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = orbit
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = amsat
    

These can be accessed by "$st->content_type( $resp )" and "$st->content_source( $resp )" respectively.

If the "file" option was passed, the following additional header will be provided:

 Pragma: spacetrack-cache-hit = (either true or false)
    

This can be accessed by the "cache_hit()" method. If this pragma is true, the "Last-Modified" header of the response will contain the modification time of the file.

This method is a web page scraper. Any change in the location of the web page will break this method.

@names = $st->attribute_names

This method returns a list of legal attribute names.

$resp = $st->banner ();

This method is a convenience/nuisance: it simply returns a fake HTTP::Response with standard banner text. It's really just for the benefit of the shell method.

$resp = $st->box_score ();

This method returns an HTTP::Response object. If the request succeeds, the content of the object will be the SATCAT Satellite Box Score information in the desired format. If the desired format is 'legacy' or 'json' and the method is called in list context, the second returned item will be a reference to an array containing the parsed data.

This method takes the following options, specified either command-style or as a hash reference.

"-format" specifies the desired format of the retrieved data. Possible values are 'xml', 'json', 'html', 'csv', and 'legacy', which is the default. The legacy format is tab-delimited text, such as was returned by the version 1 interface.

"-json" specifies JSON format. If you specify both "-json" and "-format" you will get an exception unless you specify "-format=json".

This method requires a Space Track username and password. It implicitly calls the "login()" method if the session cookie is missing or expired. If "login()" fails, you will get the HTTP::Response from "login()".

If this method succeeds, the response will contain headers

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = box_score
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

There are no arguments.

$resp = $st->celestrak ($name);

Note: As of version 0.150 of this module a false value of the 'direct' attribute is unsupported. See CELESTRAK API above for details.

This method takes the name of a Celestrak data set and returns an HTTP::Response object whose content is the relevant element sets. If called in list context, the first element of the list is the aforementioned HTTP::Response object, and the second element is a list reference to list references (i.e. a list of lists). Each of the list references contains the catalog ID of a satellite or other orbiting body and the common name of the body.

If the "direct" attribute is true, or if the "fallback" attribute is true and the data are not available from Space Track, the elements will be fetched directly from Celestrak, and no login is needed. Otherwise, this method implicitly calls the "login()" method if the session cookie is missing or expired, and returns the SpaceTrack data for the OIDs fetched from Celestrak. If "login()" fails, you will get the HTTP::Response from "login()".

A list of valid names and brief descriptions can be obtained by calling "$st->names ('celestrak')". If you have set the "verbose" attribute true (e.g. "$st->set (verbose => 1)"), the content of the error response will include this list. Note, however, that this list does not determine what can be retrieved; if Dr. Kelso adds a data set, it can be retrieved even if it is not on the list, and if he removes one, being on the list won't help.

In general, the data set names are the same as the file names given at <https://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/>, but without the '.txt' on the end; for example, the name of the 'International Space Station' data set is 'stations', since the URL for this is <https://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/stations.txt>.

The Celestrak web site makes a few items available for direct-fetching only ("$st->set(direct => 1)", see below.) These are typically debris from collisions or explosions. I have not corresponded with Dr. Kelso on this, but I think it reasonable to believe that asking Space Track for a couple thousand sets of data at once would not be a good thing.

As of this release, the following data sets may be direct-fetched only:

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = orbit
 Pragma: spacetrack-source =

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = observing-list
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = celestrak

$resp = $st->celestrak_supplemental ($name);

This method takes the name of a Celestrak supplemental data set and returns an HTTP::Response object whose content is the relevant element sets.

These TLE data are not redistributed from Space Track, but are derived from publicly available ephemeris data for the satellites in question. Valid data set names are:

 cpf: CPF TLEs
 glonass: Glonass satellites
 gps: GPS satellites
 intelsat: Intelsat satellites
 iss: ISS (from NASA, no rms data
 meteosat: Meteosat satellites
 orbcomm: Orbcomm satellites (no RMS data)
 ses: SES satellites
 starlink Starlink TLEs
    

You can specify options as either command-type options (e.g. "celestrak_supplemental( '-file', 'foo.dat' )") or as a leading hash reference (e.g. "celestrak_supplemental( { file => 'foo.dat' })"). If you specify the hash reference, option names must be specified in full, without the leading '-', and the argument list will not be parsed for command-type options. If you specify command-type options, they may be abbreviated, as long as the abbreviation is unique. Errors in either sort result in an exception being thrown.

The legal options are:

 -file
   specifies the name of the cache file. If the data
   on line are newer than the modification date of
   the cache file, the cache file will be updated.
   Otherwise the data will be returned from the file.
   Either way the content of the file and the content
   of the returned HTTP::Response object end up the
   same.
 -rms
   specifies that RMS data be returned rather than TLE
   data, if available. If RMS data are not available
   for the data set, an error is returned.
    

A list of valid names and brief descriptions can be obtained by calling "$st->names( 'celestrak_supplemental' )". If you have set the "verbose" attribute true (e.g. "$st->set (verbose => 1)"), the content of the error response will include this list. Note, however, that this list does not determine what can be retrieved; if Dr. Kelso adds a data set, it can be retrieved even if it is not on the list, and if he removes one, being on the list won't help.

If the "file" option was passed, the following additional header will be provided:

 Pragma: spacetrack-cache-hit = (either true or false)
    

This can be accessed by the "cache_hit()" method. If this pragma is true, the "Last-Modified" header of the response will contain the modification time of the file.

For more information, see <https://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/supplemental/>.

$bool = $st->cache_hit( $resp );

This method takes the given HTTP::Response object and returns the cache hit indicator specified by the 'Pragma: spacetrack-cache-hit =' header. This will be true if the response came from cache, false if it did not, and "undef" if cache was not available.

If the response object is not provided, it returns the data type from the last method call that returned an HTTP::Response object.

$source = $st->content_source($resp);

This method takes the given HTTP::Response object and returns the data source specified by the 'Pragma: spacetrack-source =' header. What values you can expect depend on the content_type (see below) as follows:

If the "content_type()" method returns 'box_score', you can expect a content-source value of 'spacetrack'.

If the content_type method returns 'iridium-status', you can expect content_source values of 'kelso', 'mccants', or 'sladen', corresponding to the main source of the data.

If the content_type method returns 'molczan', you can expect a content_source value of 'mccants'.

If the "content_type()" method returns 'orbit', you can expect content-source values of 'amsat', 'celestrak', 'mccants', 'spaceflight', or 'spacetrack', corresponding to the actual source of the TLE data. Note that the "celestrak()" method may return a content_type of 'spacetrack' if the "direct" attribute is false.

If the content_type method returns 'quicksat', you can expect a content_source value of 'mccants'.

If the "content_type()" method returns 'search', you can expect a content-source value of 'spacetrack'.

For any other values of content-type (e.g. 'get', 'help'), the expected values are undefined. In fact, you will probably literally get undef, but the author does not commit even to this.

If the response object is not provided, it returns the data source from the last method call that returned an HTTP::Response object.

If the response object is provided, you can call this as a static method (i.e. as Astro::SpaceTrack->content_source($response)).

$type = $st->content_type ($resp);

This method takes the given HTTP::Response object and returns the data type specified by the 'Pragma: spacetrack-type =' header. The following values are supported:

 'box_score': The content is the Space Track satellite
         box score.
 'get': The content is a parameter value.
 'help': The content is help text.
 'iridium_status': The content is Iridium status.
 'modeldef': The content is a REST model definition.
 'molczan': Molczan-format magnitude data.
 'orbit': The content is NORAD data sets.
 'quicksat': Quicksat-format magnitude data.
 'search': The content is Space Track search results.
 'set': The content is the result of a 'set' operation.
 undef: No spacetrack-type pragma was specified. The
        content is something else (typically 'OK').
    

If the response object is not provided, it returns the data type from the last method call that returned an HTTP::Response object.

If the response object is provided, you can call this as a static method (i.e. as Astro::SpaceTrack->content_type($response)).

For the format of the magnitude data, see <https://www.prismnet.com/~mmccants/tles/index.html>.

$type = $st->content_interface( $resp );

This method takes the given HTTP::Response object and returns the Space Track interface version specified by the 'Pragma: spacetrack-interface =' header. The following values are supported:

 1: The content was obtained using the version 1 interface.
 2: The content was obtained using the version 2 interface.
 undef: The content did not come from Space Track.
    

If the response object is not provided, it returns the data type from the last method call that returned an HTTP::Response object.

If the response object is provided, you can call this as a static method (i.e. as Astro::SpaceTrack->content_type($response)).

$resp = $st->country_names()

This method returns an HTTP::Response object. If the request succeeds, the content of the object will be the known country names and their abbreviations in the desired format. If the desired format is 'legacy' or 'json' and the method is called in list context, the second returned item will be a reference to an array containing the parsed data.

This method takes the following options, specified either command-style or as a hash reference.

"-format" specifies the desired format of the retrieved data. Possible values are 'xml', 'json', 'html', 'csv', and 'legacy', which is the default. The legacy format is tab-delimited text, such as was returned by the version 1 interface.

"-json" specifies JSON format. If you specify both "-json" and "-format" you will get an exception unless you specify "-format=json".

This method requires a Space Track username and password. It implicitly calls the "login()" method if the session cookie is missing or expired. If "login()" fails, you will get the HTTP::Response from "login()".

If this method succeeds, the response will contain headers

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = country_names
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

There are no arguments.

$resp = $st->favorite( $name )

This method returns an HTTP::Response object. If the request succeeds, the content of the response will be TLE data specified by the named favorite in the desired format. The named favorite must have previously been set up by the user, or be one of the 'global' favorites (e.g. 'Navigation', 'Weather', and so on).

This method takes the following options, specified either command-style or as a hash reference.

"-format" specifies the desired format of the retrieved data. Possible values are 'xml', 'json', 'html', 'csv', and 'legacy', which is the default. The legacy format is tab-delimited text, such as was returned by the version 1 interface.

"-json" specifies JSON format. If you specify both "-json" and "-format" you will get an exception unless you specify "-format=json".

This method requires a Space Track username and password. It implicitly calls the "login()" method if the session cookie is missing or expired. If "login()" fails, you will get the HTTP::Response from "login()".

$resp = $st->file ($name)

This method takes the name of an observing list file, or a handle to an open observing list file, and returns an HTTP::Response object whose content is the relevant element sets, retrieved from the Space Track web site. If called in list context, the first element of the list is the aforementioned HTTP::Response object, and the second element is a list reference to list references (i.e. a list of lists). Each of the list references contains the catalog ID of a satellite or other orbiting body and the common name of the body.

This method requires a Space Track username and password. It implicitly calls the "login()" method if the session cookie is missing or expired. If "login()" fails, you will get the HTTP::Response from "login()".

The observing list file is (how convenient!) in the Celestrak format, with the first five characters of each line containing the object ID, and the rest containing a name of the object. Lines whose first five characters do not look like a right-justified number will be ignored.

If this method succeeds, the response will contain headers

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = orbit
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

These can be accessed by "$st->content_type( $resp )" and "$st->content_source( $resp )" respectively.

You can specify the "retrieve()" options on this method as well.

$resp = $st->get (attrib)

This method returns an HTTP::Response object whose content is the value of the given attribute. If called in list context, the second element of the list is just the value of the attribute, for those who don't want to winkle it out of the response object. We croak on a bad attribute name.

If this method succeeds, the response will contain header

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = get
    

This can be accessed by "$st->content_type( $resp )".

See "Attributes" for the names and functions of the attributes.

$value = $st->getv (attrib)

This method returns the value of the given attribute, which is what "get()" should have done.

See "Attributes" for the names and functions of the attributes.

$resp = $st->help ()

This method exists for the convenience of the shell () method. It always returns success, with the content being whatever it's convenient (to the author) to include.

If the "webcmd" attribute is set, the <https://metacpan.org/> web page for Astro::Satpass is launched.

If this method succeeds and the webcmd attribute is not set, the response will contain header

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = help
    

This can be accessed by "$st->content_type( $resp )".

Otherwise (i.e. in any case where the response does not contain actual help text) this header will be absent.

$resp = $st->iridium_status ($format);

This method queries its sources of Iridium status, returning an HTTP::Response object containing the relevant data (if all queries succeeded) or the status of the first failure. If the queries succeed, the content is a series of lines formatted by "%6d %-15s%-8s %s\n", with NORAD ID, name, status, and comment substituted in.

If no format is specified, the format specified in the "iridium_status_format" attribute is used.

There is one option, 'raw', which can be specified either command-line style (i.e. "-raw") or as a leading hash reference. Asserting this option causes status information from sources other than Celestrak and Rod Sladen not to be supplemented by Celestrak data. In addition, it prevents all sources from being supplemented by canned data that includes all original-design Iridium satellites, including those that have decayed. By default this option is not asserted.

Format 'mccants' is deprecated, and throws an exception as of version 0.137. This entire method will be deprecated and removed once the last flaring Iridium satellite is removed from service.

A Space Track username and password are required only if the format is 'spacetrack'.

If this method succeeds, the response will contain headers

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = iridium_status
 Pragma: spacetrack-source =
    

The spacetrack-source will be 'kelso', 'sladen', or 'spacetrack', depending on the format requested.

These can be accessed by "$st->content_type( $resp )" and "$st->content_source( $resp )" respectively.

The source of the data and, to a certain extent, the format of the results is determined by the optional $format argument, which defaults to the value of the "iridium_status_format" attribute.

If the format is 'kelso', only Dr. Kelso's Celestrak web site (<https://celestrak.com/SpaceTrack/query/iridium.txt>) is queried for the data. The possible status values are documented at <https://celestrak.com/satcat/status.php>, and repeated here for convenience:

    '[+]' - Operational
    '[-]' - Nonoperational
    '[P]' - Partially Operational
    '[B]' - Backup/Standby
    '[S]' - Spare
    '[X]' - Extended Mission
    '[D]' - Decayed
    '[?]' - Unknown
    

The comment will be 'Spare', 'Tumbling', or '' depending on the status.

In addition, the data from Celestrak may contain the following status:

 'dum' - Dummy mass
    

A blank status indicates that the satellite is in service and therefore capable of producing flares.

If the format is 'sladen', the primary source of information will be Rod Sladen's "Iridium Constellation Status" web page, <http://www.rod.sladen.org.uk/iridium.htm>, which gives status on all Iridium satellites, but no OID. The Celestrak list will be used to provide OIDs for Iridium satellite numbers, so that a complete list is generated. Mr. Sladen's page simply lists operational and failed satellites in each plane, so this software imposes Kelso-style statuses on the data. That is to say, operational satellites will be marked '[+]', spares will be marked '[S]', and failed satellites will be marked '[-]', with the corresponding portable statuses. As of version 0.035, all failed satellites will be marked '[-]'. Previous to this release, failed satellites not specifically marked as tumbling were considered spares.

The comment field in 'sladen' format data will contain the orbital plane designation for the satellite, 'Plane n' with 'n' being a number from 1 to 6. If the satellite is failed but not tumbling, the text ' - Failed on station?' will be appended to the comment. The dummy masses will be included from the Kelso data, with status '[-]' but comment 'Dummy'.

If the format is 'spacetrack', the data come from both Celestrak and Space Track. For any given OID, we take the Space Track data if it shows the OID as being decayed, or if the OID does not appear in the Celestrak data; otherwise we take the Celestrak data. The idea here is to get a list of statuses that include decayed satellites dropped from the Celestrak list. You will need a Space Track username and password for this. The format of the returned data is the same as for Celestrak data.

If the method is called in list context, the first element of the returned list will be the HTTP::Response object, and the second element will be a reference to a list of anonymous lists, each containing [$id, $name, $status, $comment, $portable_status] for an Iridium satellite. The portable statuses are:

  0 = BODY_STATUS_IS_OPERATIONAL means object is operational,
      and capable of producing predictable flares;
  1 = BODY_STATUS_IS_SPARE means object is a spare or
      otherwise not in regular service, but is controlled
      and may be capable of producing predictable flares;
  2 = BODY_STATUS_IS_TUMBLING means object is tumbling
      or otherwise unservicable, and incapable of producing
      predictable flares
  3 - BODY_STATUS_IS_DECAYED neans that the object is decayed.
    

In terms of the Kelso statuses, the mapping is:

    '[+]' - BODY_STATUS_IS_OPERATIONAL
    '[-]' - BODY_STATUS_IS_TUMBLING
    '[P]' - BODY_STATUS_IS_SPARE
    '[B]' - BODY_STATUS_IS_SPARE
    '[S]' - BODY_STATUS_IS_SPARE
    '[X]' - BODY_STATUS_IS_SPARE
    '[D]' - BODY_STATUS_IS_DECAYED
    '[?]' - BODY_STATUS_IS_TUMBLING
    

The BODY_STATUS constants are exportable using the :status tag.

$resp = $st->launch_sites()

This method returns an HTTP::Response object. If the request succeeds, the content of the object will be the known launch sites and their abbreviations in the desired format. If the desired format is 'legacy' or 'json' and the method is called in list context, the second returned item will be a reference to an array containing the parsed data.

This method takes the following options, specified either command-style or as a hash reference.

"-format" specifies the desired format of the retrieved data. Possible values are 'xml', 'json', 'html', 'csv', and 'legacy', which is the default. The legacy format is tab-delimited text, such as was returned by the version 1 interface.

"-json" specifies JSON format. If you specify both "-json" and "-format" you will get an exception unless you specify "-format=json".

This method requires a Space Track username and password. It implicitly calls the "login()" method if the session cookie is missing or expired. If "login()" fails, you will get the HTTP::Response from "login()".

If this method succeeds, the response will contain headers

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = launch_sites
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

There are no arguments.

$resp = $st->login ( ... )

If any arguments are given, this method passes them to the set () method. Then it executes a login to the Space Track web site. The return is normally the HTTP::Response object from the login. But if no session cookie was obtained, the return is an HTTP::Response with an appropriate message and the code set to HTTP_UNAUTHORIZED from HTTP::Status (a.k.a. 401). If a login is attempted without the username and password being set, the return is an HTTP::Response with an appropriate message and the code set to HTTP_PRECONDITION_FAILED from HTTP::Status (a.k.a. 412).

A Space Track username and password are required to use this method.

$st->logout()

This method deletes all session cookies. It returns an HTTP::Response object that indicates success.

$resp = $st->mccants( catalog )

This method retrieves one of several pieces of data that Mike McCants makes available on his web site. The return is the HTTP::Response object from the retrieval. Valid catalog names are:

 classified: Classified TLE file (classfd.zip)
 integrated: Integrated TLE file (inttles.zip)
 mcnames: Molczan-format magnitude file (mcnames.zip)
 quicksat: Quicksat-format magnitude file (qsmag.zip)
 rcs: McCants-format RCS file (rcs.zip)
 vsnames: Molczan-format magnitudes of visual bodies (vsnames.zip)
    

You can specify options as either command-type options (e.g. "mccants( '-file', 'foo.dat', ... )") or as a leading hash reference (e.g. "mccants( { file => 'foo.dat' }, ...)"). If you specify the hash reference, option names must be specified in full, without the leading '-', and the argument list will not be parsed for command-type options. If you specify command-type options, they may be abbreviated, as long as the abbreviation is unique. Errors in either sort result in an exception being thrown.

The legal options are:

 -file
   specifies the name of the cache file. If the data
   on line are newer than the modification date of
   the cache file, the cache file will be updated.
   Otherwise the data will be returned from the file.
   Either way the content of the file and the content
   of the returned HTTP::Response object end up the
   same.
    

On success, the content of the returned object is the actual data, unzipped and with line endings normalized for the current system.

If this method succeeds, the response will contain headers

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = (see below)
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = mccants
    

The content of the spacetrack-type pragma depends on the catalog fetched, as follows:

 classified: 'orbit'
 integrated: 'orbit'
 mcnames:    'molczan'
 quicksat:   'quicksat'
 rcs:        'rcs.mccants'
 vsnames:    'molczan'
    

If the "file" option was passed, the following additional header will be provided:

 Pragma: spacetrack-cache-hit = (either true or false)
    

This can be accessed by the "cache_hit()" method. If this pragma is true, the "Last-Modified" header of the response will contain the modification time of the file.

No Space Track username and password are required to use this method.

$resp = $st->names (source)

This method retrieves the names of the catalogs for the given source, either 'celestrak', 'celestrak_supplemental', 'iridium_status', 'mccants', 'spaceflight', or 'spacetrack', in the content of the given HTTP::Response object. If the argument is not one of the supported values, the $resp object represents a 404 (Not found) error.

In list context, you also get a reference to a list of two-element lists; each inner list contains the description and the catalog name, in that order (suitable for inserting into a Tk Optionmenu). If the argument is not one of the supported values, the second return will be "undef".

No Space Track username and password are required to use this method, since all it is doing is returning data kept by this module.

$resp = $st->retrieve (number_or_range ...)

This method retrieves the latest element set for each of the given satellite ID numbers (also known as SATCAT IDs, NORAD IDs, or OIDs) from The Space Track web site. Non-numeric catalog numbers are ignored, as are (at a later stage) numbers that do not actually represent a satellite.

A Space Track username and password are required to use this method.

If this method succeeds, the response will contain headers

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = orbit
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

These can be accessed by "$st->content_type( $resp )" and "$st->content_source( $resp )" respectively.

Number ranges are represented as 'start-end', where both 'start' and 'end' are catalog numbers. If 'start' > 'end', the numbers will be taken in the reverse order. Non-numeric ranges are ignored.

You can specify options for the retrieval as either command-type options (e.g. "retrieve ('-last5', ...)") or as a leading hash reference (e.g. "retrieve ({last5 => 1}, ...)"). If you specify the hash reference, option names must be specified in full, without the leading '-', and the argument list will not be parsed for command-type options. If you specify command-type options, they may be abbreviated, as long as the abbreviation is unique. Errors in either sort result in an exception being thrown.

The legal options are:

 -descending
   specifies the data be returned in descending order.
 -end_epoch date
   specifies the end epoch for the desired data.
 -format format_name
   specifies the format in which the data are retrieved.
 -json
   specifies the TLE be returned in JSON format.
 -last5
   specifies the last 5 element sets be retrieved.
   Ignored if start_epoch, end_epoch or since_file is
   specified.
 -start_epoch date
   specifies the start epoch for the desired data.
 -since_file number
   specifies that only data since the given Space Track
   file number be retrieved.
 -sort type
   specifies how to sort the data. Legal types are
   'catnum' and 'epoch', with 'catnum' the default.
    

The "-format" option takes any argument supported by the Space Track interface: "tle", "3le", "json", "csv", "html", or "xml". Specifying "-json" is equivalent to specifying "-format json", and if you specify "-json", specifying "-format" with any other value than 'json' results in an exception being thrown. In addition, you can specify format 'legacy' which is equivalent to 'tle' if the "with_name" attribute is false, or '3le' (but without the leading '0 ' before the common name) if "with_name" is true. The default is 'legacy' unless "-json" is specified.

If you specify either start_epoch or end_epoch, you get data with epochs at least equal to the start epoch, but less than the end epoch (i.e. the interval is closed at the beginning but open at the end). If you specify only one of these, you get a one-day interval. Dates are specified either numerically (as a Perl date) or as numeric year-month-day (and optional hour, hour:minute, or hour:minute:second), punctuated by any non-numeric string. It is an error to specify an end_epoch before the start_epoch.

If you are passing the options as a hash reference, you must specify a value for the Boolean options 'descending' and 'last5'. This value is interpreted in the Perl sense - that is, undef, 0, and '' are false, and anything else is true.

In order not to load the Space Track web site too heavily, data are retrieved in batches of 200. Ranges will be subdivided and handled in more than one retrieval if necessary. To limit the damage done by a pernicious range, ranges greater than the max_range setting (which defaults to 500) will be ignored with a warning to STDERR.

If you specify "-json" and more than one retrieval is needed, data from retrievals after the first may have field "_file_of_record" added. This is because of the theoretical possibility that the database may be updated between the first and last queries, and therefore taking the maximum "FILE" from queries after the first may cause updates to be skipped. The "_file_of_record" key will appear only in data having a "FILE" value greater than the largest "FILE" in the first retrieval.

This method implicitly calls the "login()" method if the session cookie is missing or expired. If "login()" fails, you will get the HTTP::Response from "login()".

If this method succeeds, a 'Pragma: spacetrack-type = orbit' header is added to the HTTP::Response object returned.

$resp = $st->search_date (date ...)

This method searches the Space Track database for objects launched on the given date. The date is specified as year-month-day, with any non-digit being legal as the separator. You can omit -day or specify it as 0 to get all launches for the given month. You can omit -month (or specify it as 0) as well to get all launches for the given year.

A Space Track username and password are required to use this method.

You can specify options for the search as either command-type options (e.g. "$st->search_date (-status => 'onorbit', ...)") or as a leading hash reference (e.g. "$st->search_date ({status => onorbit}, ...)"). If you specify the hash reference, option names must be specified in full, without the leading '-', and the argument list will not be parsed for command-type options. Options that take multiple values (i.e. 'exclude') must have their values specified as a hash reference, even if you only specify one value - or none at all.

If you specify command-type options, they may be abbreviated, as long as the abbreviation is unique. Errors in either sort of specification result in an exception being thrown.

In addition to the options available for "retrieve()", the following options may be specified:

 -exclude
   specifies the types of bodies to exclude. The
   value is one or more of 'payload', 'debris', 'rocket',
   'unknown', 'tba', or 'other'. If you specify this as a
   command-line option you may either specify this more
   than once or specify the values comma-separated.
 -include
   specifies the types of bodies to include. The possible
   values are the same as for -exclude. If you specify a
   given body as both included and excluded it is included.
 -rcs
   used to specify that the radar cross-section returned
   by the search was to be appended to the name, in the form
   --rcs radar_cross_section. Beginning with version 0.086_02
   it does nothing, since as of August 18 2014 Space Track
   no longer provides quantitative RCS data.
 -status
   specifies the desired status of the returned body (or
   bodies). Must be 'onorbit', 'decayed', or 'all'.  The
   default is 'onorbit'. Specifying a value other than the
   default will cause the -last5 option to be ignored.
   Note that this option represents status at the time the
   search was done; you can not combine it with the
   retrieve() date options to find bodies onorbit as of a
   given date in the past.
 -tle
   specifies that you want TLE data retrieved for all
   bodies that satisfy the search criteria. This is
   true by default, but may be negated by specifying
   -notle ( or { tle => 0 } ). If negated, the content
   of the response object is the results of the search,
   one line per body found, with the fields tab-
   delimited.
 -comment
   specifies that you want the comment field. This will
   not appear in the TLE data, but in the satcat data
   returned in array context, or if C<-notle> is
   specified. The default is C<-nocomment> for backward
   compatibility.
    

The "-rcs" option does not work with all values of "-format". An exception will be thrown unless "-format" is 'tle', '3le', 'legacy', or 'json'.

Examples:

 search_date (-status => 'onorbit', -exclude =>
    'debris,rocket', -last5 '2005-12-25');
 search_date (-exclude => 'debris',
    -exclude => 'rocket', '2005/12/25');
 search_date ({exclude => ['debris', 'rocket']},
    '2005-12-25');
 search_date ({exclude => 'debris,rocket'}, # INVALID!
    '2005-12-25');
 search_date ( '-notle', '2005-12-25' );
    

The "-exclude" option is implemented in terms of the "OBJECT_TYPE" predicate, which is one of the values 'PAYLOAD', 'ROCKET BODY', 'DEBRIS', 'UNKNOWN', 'TBA', or 'OTHER'. It works by selecting all values other than the ones specifically excluded. The 'TBA' status was introduced October 1 2013, supposedly replacing 'UNKNOWN', but I have retained both.

This method implicitly calls the "login()" method if the session cookie is missing or expired. If "login()" fails, you will get the HTTP::Response from "login()".

What you get on success depends on the value specified for the -tle option.

Unless you explicitly specified "-notle" (or "{ tle => 0 }"), this method returns an HTTP::Response object whose content is the relevant element sets. It will also have the following headers set:

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = orbit
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

These can be accessed by "$st->content_type( $resp )" and "$st->content_source( $resp )" respectively.

If you explicitly specified "-notle" (or "{ tle => 0 }"), this method returns an HTTP::Response object whose content is in the format specified by the "-format" retrieval option (q.v.). If the format is 'legacy' (the default if "-json" is not specified) the content mimics what was returned under the version 1 interface; that is, it is the results of the relevant search, one line per object found. Within a line the fields are tab-delimited, and occur in the same order as the underlying web page. The first line of the content is the header lines from the underlying web page.

The returned object will also have the following headers set if "-notle" is specified:

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = search
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

If you call this method in list context, the first element of the returned object is the aforementioned HTTP::Response object, and the second is a reference to an array containing the search results. The first element is a reference to an array containing the header lines from the web page. Subsequent elements are references to arrays containing the actual search results.

$resp = $st->search_decay (decay ...)

This method searches the Space Track database for objects decayed on the given date. The date is specified as year-month-day, with any non-digit being legal as the separator. You can omit -day or specify it as 0 to get all decays for the given month. You can omit -month (or specify it as 0) as well to get all decays for the given year.

The options are the same as for "search_date()".

A Space Track username and password are required to use this method.

What you get on success depends on the value specified for the -tle option.

Unless you explicitly specified "-notle" (or "{ tle => 0 }"), this method returns an HTTP::Response object whose content is the relevant element sets. It will also have the following headers set:

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = orbit
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

These can be accessed by "$st->content_type( $resp )" and "$st->content_source( $resp )" respectively.

If you explicitly specified "-notle" (or "{ tle => 0 }"), this method returns an HTTP::Response object whose content is the results of the relevant search, one line per object found. Within a line the fields are tab-delimited, and occur in the same order as the underlying web page. The first line of the content is the header lines from the underlying web page. It will also have the following headers set:

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = search
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

If you call this method in list context, the first element of the returned object is the aforementioned HTTP::Response object, and the second is a reference to an array containing the search results. The first element is a reference to an array containing the header lines from the web page. Subsequent elements are references to arrays containing the actual search results.

$resp = $st->search_id (id ...)

This method searches the Space Track database for objects having the given international IDs. The international ID is the last two digits of the launch year (in the range 1957 through 2056), the three-digit sequence number of the launch within the year (with leading zeroes as needed), and the piece (A through ZZZ, with A typically being the payload). You can omit the piece and get all pieces of that launch, or omit both the piece and the launch number and get all launches for the year. There is no mechanism to restrict the search to a given on-orbit status, or to filter out debris or rocket bodies.

The options are the same as for "search_date()".

A Space Track username and password are required to use this method.

This method implicitly calls the "login()" method if the session cookie is missing or expired. If "login()" fails, you will get the HTTP::Response from "login()".

What you get on success depends on the value specified for the "-tle" option.

Unless you explicitly specified "-notle" (or "{ tle => 0 }"), this method returns an HTTP::Response object whose content is the relevant element sets. It will also have the following headers set:

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = orbit
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

These can be accessed by "$st->content_type( $resp )" and "$st->content_source( $resp )" respectively.

If you explicitly specified "-notle" (or "{ tle => 0 }"), this method returns an HTTP::Response object whose content is the results of the relevant search, one line per object found. Within a line the fields are tab-delimited, and occur in the same order as the underlying web page. The first line of the content is the header lines from the underlying web page. It will also have the following headers set:

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = search
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

If you call this method in list context, the first element of the returned object is the aforementioned HTTP::Response object, and the second is a reference to an array containing the search results. The first element is a reference to an array containing the header lines from the web page. Subsequent elements are references to arrays containing the actual search results.

$resp = $st->search_name (name ...)

This method searches the Space Track database for the named objects. Matches are case-insensitive and all matches are returned.

The options are the same as for "search_date()". The "-status" option is known to work, but I am not sure about the efficacy the "-exclude" option.

A Space Track username and password are required to use this method.

This method implicitly calls the "login()" method if the session cookie is missing or expired. If "login()" fails, you will get the HTTP::Response from "login()".

What you get on success depends on the value specified for the -tle option.

Unless you explicitly specified "-notle" (or "{ tle => 0 }"), this method returns an HTTP::Response object whose content is the relevant element sets. It will also have the following headers set:

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = orbit
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

These can be accessed by "$st->content_type( $resp )" and "$st->content_source( $resp )" respectively.

If you explicitly specified "-notle" (or "{ tle => 0 }"), this method returns an HTTP::Response object whose content is the results of the relevant search, one line per object found. Within a line the fields are tab-delimited, and occur in the same order as the underlying web page. The first line of the content is the header lines from the underlying web page. It will also have the following headers set:

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = search
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

If you call this method in list context, the first element of the returned object is the aforementioned HTTP::Response object, and the second is a reference to an array containing the search results. The first element is a reference to an array containing the header lines from the web page. Subsequent elements are references to arrays containing the actual search results.

$resp = $st->search_oid (name ...)

This method searches the Space Track database for the given Space Track IDs (also known as OIDs, hence the method name).

Note that in effect this is just a stupid, inefficient version of "retrieve()", which does not understand ranges. Unless you assert "-notle" or call it in list context to get the search data, you should simply call "retrieve()" instead.

In addition to the options available for "retrieve()", the following option may be specified:

 rcs
   Used to specify that the radar cross-section returned by
   the search is to be appended to the name, in the form
   --rcs radar_cross_section. Starting with version 0.086_02
   it does nothing, since as of August 18 2014 Space Track
   no longer provides quantitative RCS data.
 tle
   specifies that you want TLE data retrieved for all
   bodies that satisfy the search criteria. This is
   true by default, but may be negated by specifying
   -notle ( or { tle => 0 } ). If negated, the content
   of the response object is the results of the search,
   one line per body found, with the fields tab-
   delimited.
    

If you specify "-notle", all other options are ignored, except for "-descending".

A Space Track username and password are required to use this method.

This method implicitly calls the "login()" method if the session cookie is missing or expired. If "login()" fails, you will get the HTTP::Response from "login()".

What you get on success depends on the value specified for the -tle option.

Unless you explicitly specified "-notle" (or "{ tle => 0 }"), this method returns an HTTP::Response object whose content is the relevant element sets. It will also have the following headers set:

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = orbit
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

If the "content_type()" method returns 'box_score', you can expect a content-source value of 'spacetrack'.

If you explicitly specified "-notle" (or "{ tle => 0 }"), this method returns an HTTP::Response object whose content is the results of the relevant search, one line per object found. Within a line the fields are tab-delimited, and occur in the same order as the underlying web page. The first line of the content is the header lines from the underlying web page. It will also have the following headers set:

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = search
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

If you call this method in list context, the first element of the returned object is the aforementioned HTTP::Response object, and the second is a reference to an array containing the search results. The first element is a reference to an array containing the header lines from the web page. Subsequent elements are references to arrays containing the actual search results.

$st->set ( ... )

This is the mutator method for the object. It can be called explicitly, but other methods as noted may call it implicitly also. It croaks if you give it an odd number of arguments, or if given an attribute that either does not exist or cannot be set.

For the convenience of the shell method we return a HTTP::Response object with a success status if all goes well. But if we encounter an error we croak.

See "Attributes" for the names and functions of the attributes.

$st->shell ()

This method implements a simple shell. Any public method name except 'new' or 'shell' is a command, and its arguments if any are parameters. We use Text::ParseWords to parse the line, and blank lines or lines beginning with a hash mark ('#') are ignored. Input is via Term::ReadLine if that is available. If not, we do the best we can.

We also recognize 'bye' and 'exit' as commands, which terminate the method. In addition, 'show' is recognized as a synonym for 'get', and 'get' (or 'show') without arguments is special-cased to list all attribute names and their values. Attributes listed without a value have the undefined value.

There are also a couple meta-commands, that in effect wrap other commands. These are specified before the command, and can (depending on the meta-command) have effect either right before the command is executed, right after it is executed, or both. If more than one meta-command is specified, the before-actions take place in the order specified, and the after-actions in the reverse of the order specified.

The 'time' meta-command times the command, and writes the timing to standard error before any output from the command is written.

The 'olist' meta-command turns TLE data into an observing list. This only affects results with "spacetrack-type" of 'orbit'. If the content is affected, the "spacetrack-type" will be changed to 'observing-list'. This meta-command is experimental, and may change function or be retracted. It is unsupported when applied to commands that do not return TLE data.

For commands that produce output, we allow a sort of pseudo-redirection of the output to a file, using the syntax ">filename" or ">>filename". If the ">" is by itself the next argument is the filename. In addition, we do pseudo-tilde expansion by replacing a leading tilde with the contents of environment variable HOME. Redirection can occur anywhere on the line. For example,

 SpaceTrack> catalog special >special.txt
    

sends the "Special Interest Satellites" to file special.txt. Line terminations in the file should be appropriate to your OS.

Redirections will not be recognized as such if quoted or escaped. That is, both ">foo" and ">'foo'" (without the double quotes) are redirections to file foo, but both "'>foo'" and "\>foo" are arguments whose value is ">foo".

This method can also be called as a subroutine - i.e. as

 Astro::SpaceTrack::shell (...)
    

Whether called as a method or as a subroutine, each argument passed (if any) is parsed as though it were a valid command. After all such have been executed, control passes to the user. Unless, of course, one of the arguments was 'exit'.

Unlike most of the other methods, this one returns nothing.

$st->source ($filename);

This convenience method reads the given file, and passes the individual lines to the shell method. It croaks if the file is not provided or cannot be read.

$resp = $st->spaceflight ()

Notice: NASA shut down the source of this information on February 25 2021. See RETIREMENT OF NASA HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT WEB SITE above for more information, including deprecation plans for this method.

This method downloads current orbital elements from NASA's human spaceflight site, <https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/>. As of July 21 2011 you only get the International Space Station.

You can specify the argument 'ISS' (case-insensitive) to explicitly retrieve the data for the International Space Station, but as of July 21 2011 this is equivalent to specifying no argument and getting everything.

In addition you can specify options, either as command-style options (e.g. "-all") or by passing them in a hash as the first argument (e.g. "{all =" 1}>). The options specific to this method are:

 all
  causes all TLEs for a body to be downloaded;
 effective
  causes the effective date to be added to the data.
    

In addition, any of the "retrieve()" options is valid for this method as well.

The -all option is recommended, but is not the default for historical reasons. If you specify -start_epoch, -end_epoch, or -last5, -all will be ignored.

The -effective option hacks the effective date of the data onto the end of the common name (i.e. the first line of the 'NASA TLE') in the form "--effective=date" where the effective date is encoded the same way the epoch is. Specifying this forces the generation of a 'NASA TLE'.

No Space Track account is needed to access this data, even if the 'direct' attribute is false. But if the 'direct' attribute is true, the setting of the 'with_name' attribute is ignored.

If this method succeeds, the response will contain headers

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = orbit
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spaceflight
    

These can be accessed by "$st->content_type( $resp )" and "$st->content_source( $resp )" respectively.

This method is a web page scraper. any change in the location of the web pages, or any substantial change in their format, will break this method.

$resp = $st->spacetrack ($name);

This method returns predefined sets of data from the Space Track web site, using either canned queries or global favorites.

The following catalogs are available:

    Name            Description
    full            Full catalog
    payloads        All payloads
    navigation      Navigation satellites
    weather         Weather satellites
    geosynchronous  Geosynchronous bodies
    iridium         Iridium satellites
    orbcomm         OrbComm satellites
    globalstar      Globalstar satellites
    intelsat        Intelsat satellites
    inmarsat        Inmarsat satellites
    amateur         Amateur Radio satellites
    visible         Visible satellites
    special         Special satellites
    bright_geosynchronous
                    Bright Geosynchronous satellites
    human_spaceflight
                    Human Spaceflight
    well_tracked_objects
                    Well-Tracked Objects having
                    unknown country and launch point
    

The following option is supported:

 -json
   specifies the TLE be returned in JSON format
    

Options may be specified either in command-line style (that is, as "spacetrack( '-json', ... )") or as a hash reference (that is, as "spacetrack( { json => 1 }, ... )").

This method returns an HTTP::Response object. If the operation succeeded, the content of the response will be the requested data, unzipped if you used the version 1 interface.

If you requested a non-existent catalog, the response code will be "HTTP_NOT_FOUND" (a.k.a. 404); otherwise the response code will be whatever the underlying HTTPS request returned.

A Space Track username and password are required to use this method.

If this method succeeds, the response will contain headers

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = orbit
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
    

These can be accessed by "$st->content_type( $resp )" and "$st->content_source( $resp )" respectively.

A list of valid names and brief descriptions can be obtained by calling "$st->names ('spacetrack')".

If you have set the "verbose" attribute true (e.g. "$st->set (verbose => 1)"), the content of the error response will include the list of valid names. Note, however, that under version 1 of the interface this list does not determine what can be retrieved.

This method implicitly calls the "login()" method if the session cookie is missing or expired. If "login()" fails, you will get the HTTP::Response from "login()".

$resp = $st->spacetrack_query_v2( @path );

This method exposes the Space Track version 2 interface (a.k.a the REST interface). It has nothing to do with the (probably badly-named) "spacetrack()" method.

The arguments are the arguments to the REST interface. These will be URI-escaped, and a login will be performed if necessary. This method returns an "HTTP::Response" object containing the results of the operation.

Except for the URI escaping of the arguments and the implicit login, this method interfaces directly to Space Track. It is provided for those who want a way to experiment with the REST interface, or who wish to do something not covered by the higher-level methods.

For example, if you want the JSON version of the satellite box score (rather than the tab-delimited version provided by the "box_score()" method) you will find the JSON in the response object of the following call:

 my $resp = $st->spacetrack_query_v2( qw{
     basicspacedata query class boxscore
     format json predicates all
     } );
 );
    

If this method is called directly from outside the "Astro::SpaceTrack" name space, pragmata will be added to the results based on the arguments, as follows:

For "basicspacedata => 'modeldef'"

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = modeldef
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
 Pragma: spacetrack-interface = 2
    

For "basicspacedata => 'query'" and "class => 'tle'" or 'tle_latest',

 Pragma: spacetrack-type = orbit
 Pragma: spacetrack-source = spacetrack
 Pragma: spacetrack-interface = 2
    

$resp = $st->update( $file_name );

This method updates the named TLE file, which must be in JSON format. On a successful update, the content of the returned HTTP::Response object is the updated TLE data, in whatever format is desired. If any updates were in fact found, the file is rewritten. The rewritten JSON will be pretty if the "pretty" attribute is true.

The file to be updated can be generated by using the "-json" option on any of the methods that accesses Space Track data. For example,

 # Assuming $ENV{SPACETRACK_USER} contains
 # username/password
 my $st = Astro::SpaceTrack->new(
     pretty              => 1,
 );
 my $rslt = $st->spacetrack( { json => 1 }, 'iridium' );
 $rslt->is_success()
     or die $rslt->status_line();
 open my $fh, '>', 'iridium.json'
     or die "Failed to open file: $!";
 print { $fh } $rslt->content();
 close $fh;
    

The following is the equivalent example using the SpaceTrack script:

 SpaceTrack> set pretty 1
 SpaceTrack> spacetrack -json iridium >iridium.json
    

This method reads the file to be updated, determines the highest "FILE" value, and then requests the given OIDs, restricting the return to "FILE" values greater than the highest found. If anything is returned, the file is rewritten.

The following options may be specified:

 -json
   specifies the TLE be returned in JSON format
    

Options may be specified either in command-line style (that is, as "spacetrack( '-json', ... )") or as a hash reference (that is, as "spacetrack( { json => 1 }, ... )").

Note that there is no way to specify the "-rcs" or "-effective" options. If the file being updated contains these values, they will be lost as the individual OIDs are updated.

Astro::SpaceTrack->flush_identity_cache();

The identity file is normally read only once, and the data cached. This static method flushes the cache to force the identity data to be reread.

Attributes

Boolean attributes are typically set to 1 for true, and 0 for false.

addendum (text)

This attribute specifies text to add to the output of the banner() method.

The default is an empty string.

banner (Boolean)

This attribute specifies whether or not the shell() method should emit the banner text on invocation.

The default is true (i.e. 1).

cookie_expires (number)

This attribute specifies the expiration time of the cookie. You should only set this attribute with a previously-retrieved value, which matches the cookie.

cookie_name (string)

This attribute specifies the name of the session cookie. You should not need to change this in normal circumstances, but if Space Track changes the name of the session cookie you can use this to get you going again.

direct (Boolean)

This attribute specifies that orbital elements should be fetched directly from the redistributer if possible. At the moment the only methods affected by this are celestrak() and spaceflight().

The default is false (i.e. 0).

domain_space_track (string)

This attribute specifies the domain name of the Space Track web site. The user will not normally need to modify this, but if the web site changes names for some reason, this attribute may provide a way to get queries going again.

The default is 'www.space-track.org'. This will change if necessary to remain appropriate to the Space Track web site.

fallback (Boolean)

This attribute specifies that orbital elements should be fetched from the redistributer if the original source is offline. At the moment the only method affected by this is celestrak().

The default is false (i.e. 0).

filter (Boolean)

If true, this attribute specifies that the shell is being run in filter mode, and prevents any output to STDOUT except orbital elements -- that is, if I found all the places that needed modification.

The default is false (i.e. 0).

identity (Boolean)

If this attribute is set to a true value, the "Astro::SpaceTrack" object will attempt to load attributes from an identity file. This will only do anything if the identity file exists and Config::Identity is installed. In addition, if the identity file is encrypted "gpg2" must be installed and properly configured. See IDENTITY FILE below for details of the identity file.

I have found that "gpg" does not seem to work nicely, even though Config::Identity prefers it to "gpg2" if both are present. The Config::Identity documentation says that you can override this by setting environment variable "CI_GPG" to the executable you want used.

If this attribute is unspecified (to "new()" or specified as "undef" (to "new()" or "set()"), the value of environment variable "SPACETRACK_IDENTITY" will be used as the new value.

When a new object is instantiated, the identity is processed first; in this way attribute values that come from the environment or are specified explicitly override those that come from the identity file. If you explicitly set this on an already-instantiated object, the attribute values from the identity file will replace those in the object.

When you instantiate an object, the identity from environment variable "SPACETRACK_USER" will be preferred over the value from the identity file, if any, even if the "identity" attribute is explicitly set true.

iridium_status_format (string)

This attribute specifies the default format of the data returned by the "iridium_status()" method. Valid values are 'kelso', 'sladen' or 'spacetrack'. See that method for more information.

As of version 0.100_02, the default is 'kelso'. It used to be 'mccants', but Mike McCants no longer maintains his Iridium status web page, and format 'mccants' was removed as of version 0.137.

max_range (number)

This attribute specifies the maximum size of a range of NORAD IDs to be retrieved. Its purpose is to impose a sanity check on the use of the range functionality.

The default is 500.

password (text)

This attribute specifies the Space-Track password.

The default is an empty string.

pretty (Boolean)

This attribute specifies whether the content of the returned HTTP::Response is to be pretty-formatted. Currently this only applies to Space Track data returned in "JSON" format. Pretty-formatting the "JSON" is extra overhead, so unless you intend to read the "JSON" yourself this should probably be false.

The default is 0 (i.e. false).

prompt (string)

This attribute specifies the prompt issued by the "shell()" method. The default is 'SpaceTrack> '.

scheme_space_track (string)

This attribute specifies the URL scheme used to access the Space Track web site. The user will not normally need to modify this, but if the web site changes schemes for some reason, this attribute may provide a way to get queries going again.

The default is 'https'.

session_cookie (text)

This attribute specifies the session cookie. You should only set it with a previously-retrieved value.

The default is an empty string.

space_track_version (integer)

This attribute specifies the version of the Space Track interface to use to retrieve data. The only valid value is 2. If you set it to a false value (i.e. "undef", 0, or '') it will be set to the default.

The default is 2.

url_iridium_status_kelso (text)

This attribute specifies the location of the celestrak.com Iridium information. You should normally not change this, but it is provided so you will not be dead in the water if Dr. Kelso needs to re-arrange his web site.

The default is 'https://celestrak.com/SpaceTrack/query/iridium.txt'

url_iridium_status_mccants (text)

This attribute is deprecated, and any access of it will be fatal.

url_iridium_status_sladen (text)

This attribute specifies the location of Rod Sladen's Iridium Constellation Status page. You should normally not need to change this, but it is provided so you will not be dead in the water if Mr. Sladen needs to change his ISP or re-arrange his web site.

The default is 'http://www.rod.sladen.org.uk/iridium.htm'.

username (text)

This attribute specifies the Space-Track username.

The default is an empty string.

verbose (Boolean)

This attribute specifies verbose error messages.

The default is false (i.e. 0).

verify_hostname (Boolean)

This attribute specifies whether "https:" certificates are verified. If you set this false, you can not verify that hosts using "https:" are who they say they are, but it also lets you work around invalid certificates. Currently only the Space Track web site uses "https:".

Note that the default has changed, as follows:

* In version 0.060_08 and earlier, the default was true, to mimic earlier behavior.

* In version 0.060_09 this was changed to false, in the belief that the code should work out of the box (which it did not when verify_hostname was true, at least as of mid-July 2012).

* On September 30 2012 Space Track announced that they had their SSL certificates set up, so in 0.064_01 the default became false again.

* On August 19 2014 Perl's SSL logic stopped accepting Mike McCants' GoDaddy certificate, so starting with version 0.086_02 the default is false once again.

* On December 11 2014 I noticed that Perl was accepting Mike McCants' certificate again, so starting with version 0.088_01 the default is restored to true.

If environment variable "SPACETRACK_VERIFY_HOSTNAME" is defined, its value will be used as the default of this attribute. Otherwise the default is false (i.e. 0).

webcmd (string)

This attribute specifies a system command that can be used to launch a URL into a browser. If specified, the 'help' command will append a space and the metacpan.org URL for the documentation for this version of Astro::SpaceTrack, and spawn that command to the operating system. You can use 'open' under Mac OS X, and 'start' under Windows. Anyone else will probably need to name an actual browser.

As of version 0.105_01, a value of '1' causes Browser::Open to be loaded, and the web command is taken from it. All other true values are deprecated, on the following schedule:

with_name (Boolean)

This attribute specifies whether the returned element sets should include the common name of the body (three-line format) or not (two-line format). It is ignored if the 'direct' attribute is true; in this case you get whatever the redistributer provides.

The default is false (i.e. 0).

$SPACETRACK_DELAY_SECONDS

This global is not exported. You must refer to it as $Astro::SpaceTrack::SPACETRACK_DELAY_SECONDS.

SPACETRACK_DELAY_SECONDS

This environment variable is only used to initialize $SPACETRACK_DELAY_SECONDS. If you wish to change the delay you must assign to the global.

SPACETRACK_IDENTITY

SPACETRACK_OPT

If you specify username or password in SPACETRACK_OPT and you also specify SPACETRACK_USER, the latter takes precedence, and arguments passed explicitly to the new () method take precedence over both.

SPACETRACK_TEST_LIVE

SPACETRACK_USER

An explicit username and/or password passed to the new () method overrides the environment variable, as does any subsequently-set username or password.

SPACETRACK_VERIFY_HOSTNAME

SPACETRACK_SKIP_OPTION_HASH_VALIDATION

Support for this environment variable will be put through a deprecation cycle and removed once the validation code is deemed solid.

SpaceTrack

SpaceTrackTk

Data Throttling

The throttling functionality will make use of Time::HiRes if it is available; otherwise it will simply use the built-in "sleep()" and "time()", with consequent loss of precision.

Unfortunately this makes testing slower. Sorry.

Quantitative RCS Data

This removal took place August 18 2014. Beginning with version 0.086_02, any RCS functionality specific to the Space Track web site "RCSVALUE" datum (such as the "-rcs" search option) has been removed. The "-rcs" option itself will be put through a deprecation cycle, with the first release on or after March 1 2015 generating a warning on the first use, the first release six months later generating a warning on every use, and the warning becoming fatal six months after that.

On the other hand, the "RCSVALUE" and "RCS_SIZE" data will continue to be returned in such ways and places that the Space Track web site itself returns them.