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Artemis II Tracker
Pre-launch — data available after liftoff

Data Sources

This tracker combines several public APIs and community-maintained data feeds to present a real-time picture of the Artemis II mission. Below is a complete list of every data source, what it provides, and how often it updates.

Community Orbit API

Computed orbital telemetry derived from JPL Horizons ephemeris data, served by the community-run artemis.cdnspace.ca relay. This is the tracker’s primary source for orbital position data.

Provides
Speed, altitude, distance from Earth, distance from Moon, range rate, solar phase angle, G-force estimates
Update frequency
Every 5 minutes
Endpoint
artemis.cdnspace.ca/api/orbit

artemis.cdnspace.ca (opens in new tab) — community project

AROW — Artemis Real-time Orbit Website

Live spacecraft systems telemetry relayed through the community API. Provides real-time attitude, angular rates, solar array positions, antenna gimbals, and spacecraft mode data streamed via Server-Sent Events (SSE).

Provides
Spacecraft attitude (roll/pitch/yaw), angular rates, solar array wing angles, antenna gimbal positions, spacecraft mode
Update frequency
~1-second cadence (SSE stream), with 5-second polling fallback
Endpoints
artemis.cdnspace.ca/api/arow/stream (SSE)
artemis.cdnspace.ca/api/arow (polling fallback)

artemis.cdnspace.ca (opens in new tab) — community relay of NASA AROW data

Community DSN API

A community-hosted JSON feed of Deep Space Network contacts for Artemis II. This is the tracker’s primary DSN source, providing faster updates and a cleaner format than the official XML feed.

Provides
Active DSN dishes tracking Orion, station names, signal details, round-trip light time
Update frequency
Every 10 seconds
Endpoint
artemis.cdnspace.ca/api/dsn

artemis.cdnspace.ca (opens in new tab) — community project

NASA DSN Now

The official Deep Space Network real-time status feed from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Used as a fallback when the community DSN API is unavailable. Provides detailed dish-level data including signal strength, frequency bands, and all spacecraft being tracked.

Provides
Dish names and sizes, uplink/downlink frequency and power, signal strength, all tracked spacecraft (not just Orion)
Update frequency
Every 60 seconds
Endpoint
eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/data/dsn.xml

NASA DSN Now (opens in new tab) — NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

JPL Horizons

NASA’s ephemeris computation service, accessed through a Netlify serverless function proxy. Provides precise orbital data for spacecraft ID −1024 (Orion). Used as a fallback when the community orbit API is unavailable, and for 2-hour historical sparkline data.

Provides
Distance from Earth, distance from Moon, altitude, velocity, position vectors
Update frequency
On demand (fallback source)
Endpoint
ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons_batch.cgi (via Netlify proxy)

JPL Horizons (opens in new tab) — NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA DONKI — Space Weather

The Space Weather Database Of Notifications, Knowledge, Information (DONKI) from NASA’s Community Coordinated Modeling Center. Provides solar activity data critical for assessing crew radiation risk during deep-space transit. Accessed via a Netlify serverless function.

Provides
Solar flare events, geomagnetic storm Kp index, coronal mass ejections, solar energetic particle events, overall risk assessment
Update frequency
Every 15 minutes
Endpoint
ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/donki/ (via Netlify proxy)

NASA DONKI (opens in new tab) — NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center

Mission Timeline — GitHub Data Repository

A manually curated schedule of mission events maintained on GitHub. The single source of truth for the mission timeline, crew activities, and event descriptions. Compiled from NASA press kits, mission blogs, and mission audio.

Provides
Mission events with timestamps, crew activity schedule, event descriptions and details, mission phase information
Update frequency
Manually updated; fetched once on page load
Source
github.com/jakobrosin/artemis-data

jakobrosin/artemis-data (opens in new tab) — curated by Jakob Rosin

Mission News

Aggregated news articles and updates about the Artemis II mission, served through a Netlify serverless function that fetches and filters relevant coverage.

Provides
News article titles, summaries, dates, and links
Update frequency
Every 5 minutes

Data Priority & Fallback Chain

The tracker uses a layered fallback strategy to maximise uptime. If the primary source is unreachable, it automatically falls through to the next available source:

  • Orbital data: Community Orbit API → JPL Horizons → pre-launch/mock state
  • Spacecraft telemetry: AROW SSE stream → AROW polling endpoint
  • DSN tracking: Community DSN API (10 s) → NASA DSN Now XML (60 s)
  • Mission timeline: GitHub schedule.json → built-in fallback events

Disclaimer

This tracker is a fan project and is not affiliated with NASA, JPL, ESA, or the Canadian Space Agency. All data is provided as-is for informational and educational purposes. Orbital data shown is estimated from publicly available ephemeris and telemetry feeds; it should not be used for mission-critical purposes.