Capstone 4 · Certified Mission GIS Engineer

Real-Time Satellite Tracker

Cesium globe + live ISS/Starlink + visible passes + 24h replay.

The brief

Build a Cesium-based web application that shows real-time positions of the ISS and a configurable Starlink shell on a 3D globe. The user supplies a latitude/longitude; the app shows the next 5 visible passes (elevation > 30°) at that location. Click any satellite to inspect orbital elements (TLE epoch, inclination, mean motion, period). A time slider lets the user replay the last 24 hours of positions.

Rubric

  1. Cesium globe loads and renders without console errors
  2. ISS position updates at ≥1 Hz with no visible stuttering
  3. Visible-pass calculation matches a reference (e.g. n2yo.com) within 30 seconds
  4. Click-to-inspect popup shows all required orbital elements correctly
  5. Time-slider replay covers 24 hours and animates smoothly
  6. Code is deployable as a static site (no backend required)

Deliverable

Static web app (HTML+JS+CSS) deployable to GitHub Pages or S3, plus a 2-minute demo video

Dataset

https://github.com/launchdetect/academy-labs/tree/main/capstones/04-realtime-tracker

Earned credential

Successful completion of this capstone (all rubric items met) mints the Certified Mission GIS Engineer certificate at /academy/verify/{certId}/.

Submission. Certificate issuance is gated to LaunchDetect Gold ($9.99/month). Submit your capstone deliverable via the form at /academy/verify/ (coming soon — backend in v2). For now, build it, push to GitHub, and link it on your portfolio.
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