Ask Claude or ChatGPT about satellites
The Orbinauts connector gives an assistant the same answers as this site: where any satellite is right now, when it next passes over your town, what launches next and what is about to fall back to Earth, each with a link to the page it comes from. One address, no account, no key, read-only public data.
The addresshttps://api.orbinauts.com/mcp
What to ask
Six questions to try once the connector is on, each answered from the live data with the page to read more.
- Where is the ISS right now, and who is aboard?
- When can I see the ISS from Brisbane tonight?
- What satellites can I see with the naked eye from Portland tonight?
- What rocket launches are coming up this week?
- Which satellites are about to fall back to Earth?
- How many satellites are in orbit, and how many are Starlink?
Connect it in Claude
Add it once on claude.ai or in Claude Desktop; the mobile apps use what your account already has.
- Open Settings, then Connectors (under Customize).
- Choose Add custom connector.
- Name it Orbinauts and paste the address https://api.orbinauts.com/mcp, then continue.
- Claude detects the sign-in on its own: keep No sign-in, leave the request headers empty, then Add.
- On the connector's page, press Connect.
- In a chat, press the + button, open Connectors and turn Orbinauts on. Then ask.
The Free plan allows one custom connector; Pro, Max and Ultra allow more. On a Team or Enterprise plan an owner adds it under the organization's settings and members press Connect.
Claude will warn that without sign-in anyone with the address can use the connector, and that Anthropic does not control which tools developers make available: this one reads public orbit data and asks for nothing of yours.
To check it worked: the + button's Connectors list shows Orbinauts with its icon; the first question about the ISS makes Claude ask to use Where a satellite is now from Orbinauts (it asks once per tool; Always allow is safe, every tool only reads), and the answer links orbinauts.com.
Connect it in ChatGPT
In ChatGPT it is added once on the web and used in any chat after; the desktop app has no steps of its own and uses what was added on the web.
- Open chatgpt.com/plugins and press +.
- Choose Add custom MCP server, name it Orbinauts and give it a line of description.
- Under Connection, paste the address https://api.orbinauts.com/mcp. Under Authentication, choose No authentication.
- Read the warning, tick I understand and want to continue, press Create as a plugin and review the tools it found.
- In a chat, type @ in the prompt box, pick Orbinauts and ask.
This path moves: the words above are as read on October 31, 2026. If a step is not where it says, look for the connectors or custom servers among the settings.
To check it worked: Orbinauts appears when you type @ in the prompt box, and a question about the ISS answers with a link to orbinauts.com.
Other clients
Coding agents and editors take it too: the one-click link or command first, the file it writes second, and how to see it worked.
Claude Code
In a terminal, run:
claude mcp add --transport http orbinauts https://api.orbinauts.com/mcp
Or, to share it with everyone who opens a repository, put this in its .mcp.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"orbinauts": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://api.orbinauts.com/mcp"
}
}
}To check it worked: claude mcp list names orbinauts, and /mcp inside a session shows it connected.
Codex
In a terminal, run:
codex mcp add orbinauts --url https://api.orbinauts.com/mcp
Or add the entry to ~/.codex/config.toml:
[mcp_servers.orbinauts] url = "https://api.orbinauts.com/mcp"
To check it worked: codex mcp list names orbinauts, and /mcp in the Codex window shows it.
Cursor
Or put this in ~/.cursor/mcp.json, or in .cursor/mcp.json for one project:
{
"mcpServers": {
"orbinauts": {
"url": "https://api.orbinauts.com/mcp"
}
}
}To check it worked: open Cursor Settings, then MCP, where orbinauts is listed with its tools; the Output panel's MCP Logs show each call.
VS Code
Or put this in the project's .vscode/mcp.json:
{
"servers": {
"orbinauts": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://api.orbinauts.com/mcp"
}
}
}To check it worked: run MCP: List Servers from the Command Palette, where orbinauts is listed; in chat, expand a tool call and the server's name is on it.
Any other client
Any client that speaks the Model Context Protocol over Streamable HTTP takes it with these settings and nothing else:
transport: Streamable HTTP url: https://api.orbinauts.com/mcp headers: none authentication: none
To check it worked: ask the client to list its tools, and the ones in the table below are there.
Why the files differ: Claude Code and VS Code need type: http beside the address, or they take the entry for a local program; Cursor takes the address alone; Codex writes TOML rather than JSON.
What it can answer
Every Tool reads public data and changes nothing. The assistant picks one by its description; you only ask.
| Tool | What it answers | Parameters | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
find_satellites | Which satellite a name, an alias or a catalogue number means, and what it is. | language (optional), query | Read-only |
satellite_now | Where one satellite is right now, and what it is doing. | language (optional), satellite | Read-only |
passes | When satellites pass over a place in the next ten days, in its local time. | language (optional), place (optional), latitude (optional), longitude (optional), time_zone (optional), satellite (optional) | Read-only |
launches | The rocket launches of the next sixty days and of the last thirty. | language (optional) | Read-only |
close_approaches | The close approaches between objects in orbit that Space-Track reports. | language (optional) | Read-only |
reentries | What is about to fall back to Earth, and what came down lately. | language (optional) | Read-only |
crew | Who is aboard the space stations right now. | language (optional) | Read-only |
census | How many satellites and other objects are in orbit, by kind and by orbit, and how many are Starlink. | language (optional) | Read-only |
Data, sources and limits
The orbits come from Space-Track and are refreshed through the day; the launches from Launch Library 2; the crews from the agencies. Every answer carries the Credit line and the page it comes from. Where each comes from and how often it is read.
What the answers cannot tell you: whether you will actually see a pass (a pass is geometry; clouds, lights and eyesight are yours), where a satellite will be weeks from now (orbits drift and are propagated from the latest elements), anything about a satellite the public catalogue does not list, and anything that is not in the data: no opinions, no forecasts beyond the orbits.
The rate rule: 3,000 calls an hour per calling address, the whole of what a hosted assistant sends from one address. Beyond it the connector answers 429 until the hour turns.
Privacy
What reaches the server is what the assistant sends to a Tool: a satellite's name, a place's name or coordinates, a language. No account, no token, nothing of who you are beyond the calling address, which is the assistant's, not yours.
A place name or coordinates are computed with and never logged.
Questions
Do I need an account?
No. The connector asks for no sign-in and no key. You need an account with the assistant you use, as you would without it.
Which plans allow custom connectors?
In Claude: Free (one custom connector), Pro, Max and Ultra; on Team and Enterprise an owner adds it for the organization. In ChatGPT, account and workspace policies apply; the page read on October 31, 2026 set no plan beyond that.
It is not in the tools menu. Why?
In Claude, a connector is added to the account and then turned on per chat: press + and open Connectors. In ChatGPT, type @ to pick it. If it is still missing, open the connector's settings and check that its tools are not blocked.
Can my own agent or script use it?
Yes. Any client of the Model Context Protocol connects to the address with no headers. For plain JSON over HTTP, the REST API behind it is open too, documented at api.orbinauts.com/v1/docs.
Does it speak Spanish?
Yes. Ask in Spanish and the assistant passes language: es; the answer and the pages it links are then in Spanish.
For developers
The protocol is the Model Context Protocol over Streamable HTTP, at https://api.orbinauts.com/mcp: no session, no authentication, any origin.
The server card, which a client that discovers servers reads, is at https://api.orbinauts.com/mcp/server-card.
The REST API behind every Tool is documented in the API reference, rendered from its OpenAPI document.
In the official registry the server is named com.orbinauts/mcp.