Descent
Private beta · Autumn 2026
Descent predicts when satellites re-enter the atmosphere.
The Problem
Re-entry timing is harder to predict than launch.
You plan a CubeSat mission for twelve months of operations. Atmospheric drag picks up sooner than the public models predicted, and the satellite re-enters with experiments unfinished and grant milestones unmet. For a university lab or a smallsat operator, an early re-entry is the paper that does not get written and the next grant cycle that does not get funded. The same orbital lifetime is what an ODAR (orbital debris assessment report) and the FCC 5-year rule ask you to demonstrate before launch, and what a post-mission disposal record has to show after.
The Product
A re-entry date you can put in a filing.
Add a satellite by NORAD ID. Descent pulls new tracking data (TLEs) every hour and re-predicts the remaining orbital lifetime, the re-entry date, when the orbit changes. Each forecast shows the TLEs it used, when they were fetched, and the engine version, so the number holds up in an ODAR or FCC filing, or in a paper.
Plans
Free for satellites that have already re-entered: the full prediction history. Live tracking is priced per satellite, per year of orbital lifetime, with an academic rate.See pricing.
After the mission
Satellite already re-entered? We produce a dated post-mission report: predicted versus actual, the full TLE record, and the engine version. Email us.
Private beta
Sound like your mission?
The waitlist form is one scroll away — beta invites go out in mission order.
Join the waitlist ↑