On these pages, you can find extensive data on the history of
space exploration. I've pulled this together over many years; I've
compiled a partial list of acknowledgements to the many organizations
which have helped me.
I issue an irregular (approximately fortnightly) email newsletter called
Jonathan's Space Report
which attempts to provide a detailed and pedantic historical
record of the space age. (Speaking of pedantry, see my
spelling flame page)
I am interminably working on a book on the history of
the space program, some small extracts of which are
presented on this site.
Historical orbital elements (including contributions from Allen Thomson and others; updated Jan 2005)
Note: The only further updates to the element database will be made from hobbyist
data, as USAF Space Command is now restricting redistribution of US government
orbital data. All the TLE data on this site originating from US government sources
was obtained from other public sources, or else from the GSFC OIG site
under agreements that did not restrict redistribution of the data. This database
is useful for historical analysis, but does not contain recent element sets
and so cannot be used for predictions.
