Files - Two-Line or NASA Format
A condensed format for
Keplerian Elements,
computer-readable only. All the elements are on two lines, with the satellite
name on a third. This dates back to the days of FORTRAN and punched cards, but
is still the most widely used format of orbital data distribution.
WinOrbit can read this type of file for the
Satellite Database.
Possible file extensions for NASA format files are :*.2LI, *.TLE, *.ELE
. These are text files in standard bulletin format. Can often be created
by simply saving a packet or HF RTTY/AMTOR bulletin directly to disk - most of
the extra lines will be ignored by the program. They may contain multiple
satellite data sets. Sample data sets are provided with the program:
ORBS-nnn.2LI, containing popular Amateur Radio satellites. This file was
copied from a packet radio bulletin, without any editing, and shows the ability
of WinOrbit to deal with extraneous information.
TST88888.TLE - data used in the Spacetrak documentation to test the SGP
algorithms.
In addition to the packet radio networks, similar data sets can be obtained
from various internet sites, such as :
ftp.amsat.org
archive.afit.mil
ftp.seds.org
See also
AMSAT Format
File Overview
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