Orbitable

Orbital element database manager. Ingests TLE (Two-Line Element) and OMM (Orbit Mean-Elements Message) files into a database and generates organized output files by date and satellite.

Installation

pip install orbitable

# For MariaDB/MySQL support:
pip install orbitable[mysql]

Or with uv:

uv add orbitable

Quick Start

1. Scaffold configuration

orbitable init

This creates two files:

• ./config.toml -- main configuration (database, ingest sources, output settings)
• ~/.config/orbitable.toml -- user-local database credentials

Use -c to specify a different config path:

orbitable -c /etc/orbitable/config.toml init

2. Configure

Edit config.toml to set your database and ingest sources. The generated file is fully commented -- see below for a summary.

SQLite (default):

[database]
drivername = "sqlite"
name = "orbitable.db"

MariaDB/MySQL:

[database]
drivername = "mysql+pymysql"
host = "localhost"
port = 3306
name = "orbitable"
secrets_file = "/etc/orbitable/secrets.toml"

Then add your credentials to ~/.config/orbitable.toml:

username = "myuser"
password = "mypassword"

3. Ingest TLE/OMM files

Scan configured source directories:

orbitable ingest

Or ingest specific files:

orbitable ingest /path/to/20260327.tle /path/to/20260327.json

File format is auto-detected by extension:

Extension	Format
.tle, .txt, .3le	Two-Line Element
.json	Space-Track OMM JSON
.csv	OMM CSV
.xml	OMM XML

Ingestion is idempotent -- duplicate records are silently skipped.

4. Generate output files

orbitable generate

This produces files in the configured output directory:

• Date files (YYYYMMDD.tle / YYYYMMDD.omm) -- one TLE per satellite for each date (latest epoch that day)
• Object files (25544.tle / 25544.omm) -- all TLEs for a single satellite, ordered by epoch

Automating with Cron

Orbitable is designed to run via cron rather than as a long-running service. Both ingest and generate are idempotent and safe to re-run.

Ingest and generate every 4 hours:

0 */4 * * * orbitable -c /etc/orbitable/config.toml ingest && orbitable -c /etc/orbitable/config.toml generate

Ingest hourly, generate once daily at 03:00 UTC:

0 * * * * orbitable -c /etc/orbitable/config.toml ingest
0 3 * * * orbitable -c /etc/orbitable/config.toml generate

With logging to a file:

0 */4 * * * orbitable -c /etc/orbitable/config.toml ingest >> /var/log/orbitable.log 2>&1 && orbitable -c /etc/orbitable/config.toml generate >> /var/log/orbitable.log 2>&1

Credential Resolution

Database credentials are resolved in priority order:

1. Environment variables -- ORBITABLE_DATABASE__USERNAME / ORBITABLE_DATABASE__PASSWORD
2. User secrets file -- ~/.config/orbitable.toml
3. System secrets file -- path set via secrets_file in config.toml
4. config.toml values -- not recommended for credentials

For cron jobs, either use the user secrets file or export environment variables in the crontab:

ORBITABLE_DATABASE__USERNAME=myuser
ORBITABLE_DATABASE__PASSWORD=mypassword
0 */4 * * * orbitable -c /etc/orbitable/config.toml ingest && orbitable -c /etc/orbitable/config.toml generate

CLI Reference

orbitable [-c CONFIG] COMMAND

Commands:
  init       Scaffold config.toml and ~/.config/orbitable.toml
  ingest     Ingest TLE/OMM files into the database
  generate   Generate output TLE/OMM files from the database

Options:
  -c, --config PATH   Path to config.toml (default: ./config.toml)

Configuration Reference

[database]

Field	Default	Description
drivername	"sqlite"	SQLAlchemy driver (sqlite, mysql+pymysql)
name	":memory:"	Database name or file path
host		Database host
port		Database port
username		Database username (prefer secrets file)
password		Database password (prefer secrets file)
secrets_file		Path to a TOML file with username/password

[[ingest.sources]]

Field	Default	Description
path		Directory to scan for files
pattern	"*.tle"	Glob pattern for matching files

[output]

Field	Default	Description
dir	"./output"	Output directory

[output.formats]

Field	Default	Description
tle	true	Generate .tle output files
omm	true	Generate .omm (CSV) output

[output.types]

Field	Default	Description
date_files	true	YYYYMMDD files with latest TLE per satellite
object_files	true	Per-satellite files with all TLEs ordered by epoch

[logging]

Field	Default	Description
level	"INFO"	Log level: DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL

Development

Running tests

Tests are parametrized to run against SQLite, MariaDB, and PostgreSQL. SQLite runs unconditionally; MariaDB and PostgreSQL tests are skipped unless ORBITABLE_TEST_MARIADB_URL / ORBITABLE_TEST_POSTGRES_URL are set.

SQLite only:

uv run pytest tests/

MariaDB (requires Docker):

docker run -d --name orbitable-mariadb \
  -e MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD=rootpass \
  -e MARIADB_DATABASE=orbitable_test \
  -e MARIADB_USER=orbitable \
  -e MARIADB_PASSWORD=orbitable \
  -p 3306:3306 \
  mariadb:11

export ORBITABLE_TEST_MARIADB_URL="mysql+pymysql://orbitable:orbitable@127.0.0.1:3306/orbitable_test"
uv run pytest tests/

docker rm -f orbitable-mariadb

PostgreSQL (requires Docker):

docker run -d --name orbitable-postgres \
  -e POSTGRES_DB=orbitable_test \
  -e POSTGRES_USER=orbitable \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=orbitable \
  -p 5432:5432 \
  postgres:16

export ORBITABLE_TEST_POSTGRES_URL="postgresql+psycopg://orbitable:orbitable@127.0.0.1:5432/orbitable_test"
uv run pytest tests/

docker rm -f orbitable-postgres