July 11, 2026
Ground control to Major Phone
Show HN: Orbit – AR satellite tracker, watch 15k+ objects
Stargazers are obsessed, but the comments instantly turned into a sky-tracking interrogation
TLDR: Orbit is a new iPhone app that lets you point your camera at the sky and see satellites and space stations in real time. Commenters loved the privacy-first approach but quickly turned the launch into a grilling over data accuracy, refresh rates, and whether this is truly new or just prettier space-tracking.
A shiny new iPhone app called Orbit promised a very sci-fi fantasy: point your phone at the sky and watch 15,000+ satellites, space stations, planets, and even debris pop up in augmented reality. It also throws in pass predictions, a giant catalog, and an AI space chatbot. But in classic internet fashion, the real launch happened in the comments, where people skipped the oohs and went straight to "okay, but how does this thing actually know where the satellites are?"
That was the dominant mood: impressed, curious, and just a little suspicious. One commenter praised the app's no-account, on-device location setup as exactly the right vibe for a sky app, then immediately demanded refresh details. Others piled on with questions about how passes are calculated and where the orbit data comes from. Translation for non-space nerds: the crowd wanted receipts. Then came the helpful explainer energy, with one user casually dropping that satellite positions come from published tracking data and can be estimated closely enough for an app like this. Suddenly the thread had a mini classroom vibe, with a side of flexing.
The one spicy challenge? How is this different from apps that already do this? Ouch. That's the kind of simple question that can haunt any flashy launch. So while Orbit wowed people with the idea of turning your phone into a live sky scanner, the community response was a delicious mix of hype, fact-checking, and the timeless internet tradition of saying, "Cool... now prove it."
Key Points
- •Orbit is an iPhone and iPad app for iOS 17+ that tracks more than 15,000 objects in space, including satellites, planets, constellations, and debris.
- •The app’s AR Sky View overlays live positions of sky objects onto the camera feed and highlights crewed spacecraft such as the ISS and Tiangong.
- •Orbit includes 2D and 3D map views, an Overhead list of the 50 closest satellites, pass predictions, and a searchable catalog of active satellites.
- •Additional in-app sections include a Museum of historic spacecraft and curated space events such as launches, milestones, and astronomical events.
- •The privacy policy says the app does not require an account, processes camera and location-based calculations on-device, and only sends chatbot prompts to Google when the optional AI feature is used.