SatNOGS is Libre Space Foundation’s flagship project: a distributed network of low-cost, open-source satellite ground stations coordinated through a shared scheduling backend and public observation database. It turns backyard antennas into a planet-scale observatory for small satellites.
What LSF does
LSF designs and maintains the full SatNOGS stack — client software for stations, the Network scheduling service, the crowdsourced satellite DB, the observation dashboard, and the reference hardware designs (rotators, antennas, LNAs). LSF also runs the community infrastructure (forum, chat, docs, GitLab) and operates the central services that let hundreds of volunteer station owners contribute observations to a common pool.
Where we’re going
Evolve SatNOGS into a modular, service-oriented architecture that scales beyond UHF/VHF into S-band, optical and new rotator/station form factors, while keeping the barrier to entry low for new contributors worldwide.
Where the project stands
Over 500 operational ground stations (4000+ registered), 11,000,000 observations reached on 27 January 2025, ~10,000 daily observations scheduled; active architectural refactor (new SatNOGS Client architecture, 2024+).
Milestones
- 2014-04 — project founded at NASA SpaceApps Challenge, Athens Hackerspace
- 2014-11 — won Hackaday Prize 2014 Grand Prize
- 2019-11 — 300+ stations, 12M+ data frames, 380+ satellites tracked
- 2019-12 — ESA OPS-SAT post-launch status observations via SatNOGS
- 2021-11 — 5,000,000 observations
- 2024-08 — 10,000,000 observations
- 2025-01-27 — 11,000,000 observations (station 3905-LW1EXU, Argentina)
Collaborators
European Space Agency (ESA) — used SatNOGS for OPS-SAT LEOP 2019 · Radio amateur community worldwide · Universities and research labs hosting stations · Hackerspaces and maker communities
Links
License
Software: AGPL-3.0 / GPL-3.0+; Hardware: CERN Open Hardware License; Content/data: CC BY-SA 4.0