Celestrak adds catalog digit, fixes Y2K bug

17 points by 1970-01-01 6 days ago | 4 comments

VoidWhisperer 12 hours ago |
Next they should fix their SSL certificate
OymInIRole 12 hours ago |
Basically the satellite-tracking version of IPv4 exhaustion — five-digit NORAD catalog IDs cap at 99999, and mega-constellations are burning through the remaining space fast.
omoikane 11 hours ago |
I think the number actually runs out at 69999:
https://celestrak.org/NORAD/documentation/gp-data-formats.ph...
In the linked bluesky thread, they have been estimating when they will need 6 digit numbers, and seems like it was a few days earlier than their previous prediction.
https://bsky.app/profile/tskelso.bsky.social/post/3mlg2dpuqd...
altairprime 10 hours ago |
Technically, this is year (2020), because that’s when they added CSV export, given the article title. Looks like they crossed the threshold a week ago?