---
title: "Descent: satellite re-entry prediction and orbital lifetime tracking"
description: "Descent predicts when a satellite re-enters: an orbital lifetime forecast that updates hourly from TLE tracking data, with the provenance an ODAR or FCC filing needs. Private beta autumn 2026."
url: https://descent.space/
---
Descent

Private beta · Autumn 2026

# Descent predicts when satellites re-enter the atmosphere.

[Scroll↓](#problem)

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.

CUBESAT DEMO

NORAD 99999BC: 0.042

Run prediction

Predicted decay date~Jun 12, 2027Public model: Oct 2027

Earliest (P5)May 28, 2027

Latest (P95)Jul 3, 2027

Countdown281 days

Orbital decay forecast

ActualPublic model

Illustrative

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.

CUBESAT DEMO

NORAD 99999Active

Hourly refresh

Latest forecastEngine v2

Predicted re-entryJun 12, 2027 · 14:20 UTC

Countdown281 days

Last TLE epochMar 14, 2027 · 09:41 UTC

FetchedMar 14, 2027 · 10:17 UTC

Total TLEs1,204

Object typePayload

Re-predicted on every orbit change · next TLE pull in 42 min

Illustrative

[

### Tracking inputs

Add by mission name or NORAD ID. Hourly ingestion of TLE orbital elements with a five-year backfill.

How Descent ingests TLEs](https://descent.space/features#tracking)[

### Forecast outputs

A predicted re-entry date (decay date), a live countdown, and the orbital decay chart behind both.

Re-entry forecast outputs](https://descent.space/features#forecasting)[

### Team operations

Shared organisations, roles, and access controls for everyone on the mission.

Team roles and access](https://descent.space/features#operations)

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](https://descent.space/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](mailto:contact@drunik.be?subject=Post-mission%20report).

Private beta

## Sound like your mission?

The waitlist form is one scroll away — beta invites go out in mission order.

[Join the waitlist ↑](#hero)