Data Sources
The orbital asset market is opaque, fragmented, and priced through information asymmetry. The data to change that is almost entirely public. It is just scattered across a dozen institutions, each with a different format, cadence, and level of accessibility. Clarke normalizes these sources into a single legible view.
A normalized database of all active satellites with operator, country, purpose, orbital regime, launch date, and expected lifetime. Clarke currently ingests 590 GEO satellites from the May 2023 snapshot, covering 407 distinct orbital positions.
The most accessible normalized dataset of active satellites available publicly. Powers Clarke's orbital registry, operator attribution, and congestion scoring. Satellite names and orbital positions are reliable; individual satellite identifiers (NORAD/COSPAR) have known accuracy issues in the UCS source and are not displayed.
The official FCC list of all space stations authorized to operate in or serve the United States. Clarke ingests 174 GEO authorizations covering US-licensed operators and foreign operators with US market access grants. Fields include call sign, licensee, authorized frequency bands (C/Ku/Ka/L), service type, administration, and in-orbit date.
The only government-issued, per-satellite licensing record Clarke currently has. Directly expresses the spectrum coordination pillar: which frequencies are authorized at which position, under which jurisdiction. A position absent from this list has no FCC authorization, which is itself a meaningful signal for US market access.
Every filed and coordinated orbital slot and frequency assignment across all regimes. The canonical international registry for satellite positions. A filed ITU slot is the closest thing to a deed that orbital real estate currently has. Publicly accessible via web, paywalled for bulk data.
The foundational dataset Clarke does not yet have. ITU data would cover all operators regardless of US jurisdiction, add coordination dispute history, and make congestion scores authoritative rather than approximate. Bulk access requires an ITU BR IFIC subscription.
Financial filings from publicly traded satellite operators including SES, Viasat, Eutelsat, Intelsat, and Telesat. 10-K and 20-F annual reports disclose slot utilization, contract lengths, revenue by region, and fleet composition.
The only public source of economic data tied to specific orbital assets. Extracting transponder revenue by position from SEC filings is the path to Clarke's implied asset valuation layer.
Two-line element sets (TLEs) for all ~27,000 tracked orbital objects. The authoritative source for the position and trajectory of every catalogued object in Earth orbit, maintained by the US Space Force.
Adding TLE cross-reference would let Clarke validate and correct UCS orbital positions, identify decommissioned satellites still listed as active, and map physical proximity risk between assets. Free with registration.
Curated TLE datasets organized by category: active satellites, debris, rocket bodies, country of origin. A more accessible interface to Space-Track data with historical archives going back decades.
Planned as the cross-reference layer for validating UCS satellite identifiers. A spot-check against Celestrak surfaced significant NORAD ID errors in the current UCS import, which is why those identifiers are currently omitted from Clarke.
A comprehensive reference database of spacecraft and launch vehicles. Covers thousands of satellites with mission descriptions, launch records, operator details, and orbital parameters.
Particularly useful for tracking older GEO assets and alternative names. Many satellites in the UCS database carry multiple aliases that complicate operator matching across sources.
Detailed launch and satellite records maintained by a Harvard astrophysicist. Includes subsatellite catalogs, orbital history, and launch manifests going back to the beginning of the space age.
The most meticulous public record of orbital launches and satellite histories. Useful for building historical transaction context that neither ITU filings nor FCC records fully describe.