RocketMapper

What Is RocketMapper

RocketMapper pulls real-time data from the world's most comprehensive launch databases and gives you accurate, up-to-date information on upcoming missions, launch vehicles, launch sites, and the organisations doing the launching.

If you want to know whether tonight's window is still open, which rocket is on the pad, or what's already gone up this week — this is what the site is for. No fluff, no clicks to find the basics.

Who Built This

My name's Sean. I work as a project manager in telecommunications, based in the south of England. RocketMapper is a hobby project. No funding, no team. Just me, a laptop, and a level of enthusiasm for orbital mechanics that the people around me find difficult to relate to.

Why Space

I've been obsessed with space since I was a kid. Not in a vague, screensaver kind of way.

I've chased the northern lights thirty or forty times across different countries and different winters. Norway, Iceland, Finland, further afield. I've written about them. I know the forecasting sites, the cloud cover patterns, the specific frustration of a Kp of 7 and solid overcast from horizon to horizon. Same compulsion every trip: get somewhere dark, get the timing right, watch something happen in the sky that makes you feel very small.

Observatories, satellite spotting, tracking the ISS on a clear night with nothing but a rough pass time and a decent view to the north. There's something about knowing exactly when to look up and then watching it appear, right on cue, that I've never got bored of.

Rockets are the logical end of all of it. Everything up there got there somehow. Something weighing hundreds of tonnes left the surface of the Earth on a controlled explosion and didn't come back down. That fact hasn't got less interesting to me in thirty-odd years.

I haven't watched a launch in person yet. It's high on the list.

Why Build a Rocket Launch Tracker

The sites that existed weren't quite right. Some had the data but felt slow and dated. Others looked the part but were unreliable, or buried what you actually needed, or just didn't take it seriously enough.

I wanted something fast, accurate, and built like the subject matter deserved it. A site I'd actually want open on launch day. So I built it.

I'm not a professional developer. My day job is telecoms project management. But I put RocketMapper together from scratch, taught myself what I needed to along the way, and it's been running live with real traffic ever since. Every feature on here started as something I wanted myself. That's still the only filter I use.

What RocketMapper Covers

Live rocket launch tracking

Real-time launch status, countdown timers, and mission information for active and imminent launches worldwide, updated continuously.

Upcoming rocket launches

Full schedule of planned launches across all providers, with vehicle, payload, launch site, and target orbit information included.

Launch providers

Every major launch organisation in detail: SpaceX, NASA, Rocket Lab, ISRO, JAXA, Roscosmos, CASC, Firefly Aerospace, Northrop Grumman, and more.

Launch vehicles

Rocket-level pages with specifications, launch history, and mission records across active and retired vehicles.

Launch sites

Every active spaceport on Earth, from Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg to Baikonur, Kourou, Mahia, and Satish Dhawan.

Live satellite tracking

Real-time 3D globe showing current positions for the International Space Station, Starlink, Planet Labs, and commercial Earth observation fleets.

Mission news

Aggregated coverage for active and upcoming launches so you can follow what's happening without leaving the site.

A Hobby Project, Taken Seriously

RocketMapper isn't backed by anyone. There's no team. If something breaks during a launch window at 3am, that's my problem to fix, and usually is fixed.

Every decision here is mine. The site looks the way I want it to look, covers what I think matters, and gets updated when I think something is worth adding. It's a direct result of a genuine obsession, not a product roadmap written by committee.

If you find it useful, brilliant. If something's wrong or missing, get in touch. One person built this and one person runs it. Feedback actually lands somewhere.