# Show the current position of the International Space Station (ISS)
**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/show-the-current-position-of-the-international-space-station-iss/63106
**Category:** Share Your Projects
**Created:** [26 May 2022 12:59 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/show-the-current-position-of-the-international-space-station-iss/63106 "2022-05-26T12:59:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dynamicdave](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dynamicdave)
#### Post date: [26 May 2022 12:59 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/show-the-current-position-of-the-international-space-station-iss/63106/1 "2022-05-26T12:59:52Z")
This is a spin-off from a question I answered for someone on the forum recently.
I thought it would make a great fill-in exercise for any of my IoT students who have a few minutes to spare towards the end of a session of my IoT Club.
Here's a screen-shot of a simple dashboard - I'm sure most people could improve it.
```auto
[{"id":"7969e7f53683abdf","type":"debug","z":"a9b12d67e974b017","name":"","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"true","targetType":"full","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":390,"y":560,"wires":[]},{"id":"605c9ce313e4a5a7","type":"ui_worldmap","z":"a9b12d67e974b017","group":"2976f0b10d880a55","order":1,"width":"12","height":"10","name":"ISS","lat":"51","lon":"0","zoom":"4","layer":"EsriS","cluster":"","maxage":"","usermenu":"show","layers":"show","panit":"true","panlock":"false","zoomlock":"false","hiderightclick":"true","coords":"none","showgrid":"false","allowFileDrop":"false","path":"/worldmap","overlist":"CO,RA,DN","maplist":"EsriS,EsriT,NatGeo","mapname":"","mapurl":"","mapopt":"","mapwms":false,"x":590,"y":500,"wires":[]},{"id":"060a72676e03f9d3","type":"inject","z":"a9b12d67e974b017","name":"Trigger every 5-secs","props":[{"p":"headers","v":"{\"Accept\":\"text/json\"}","vt":"json"},{"p":"url","v":"http://api.open-notify.org/iss-now.json","vt":"str"}],"repeat":"5","crontab":"","once":true,"onceDelay":0.1,"topic":"","x":200,"y":440,"wires":[["3b88474842c4750d"]]},{"id":"3b88474842c4750d","type":"http request","z":"a9b12d67e974b017","name":"Get ISS coordinates","method":"GET","ret":"obj","paytoqs":"ignore","url":"","tls":"","persist":false,"proxy":"","authType":"","senderr":false,"x":200,"y":500,"wires":[["6b32ca2b8bafb6cf"]]},{"id":"6b32ca2b8bafb6cf","type":"function","z":"a9b12d67e974b017","name":"Extract lat, lon","func":"let out = []; // Declare an array\n\nlet id = \"ISS\";\nlet lat = \"\";\nlet lon = \"\";\n\nlon = msg.payload.iss_position.longitude;\nlat = msg.payload.iss_position.latitude;\n\nout.push({\"name\": id, \"lat\": lat, \"lon\": lon, \"layer\": \"ISS position\", \"icon\": \"iss\"});\n\nmsg.payload = out;\nreturn msg;\n\n","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","libs":[],"x":420,"y":500,"wires":[["605c9ce313e4a5a7","7969e7f53683abdf"]]},{"id":"2976f0b10d880a55","type":"ui_group","name":"World_Map","tab":"906026b74a1ed967","order":1,"disp":true,"width":"12","collapse":false,"className":""},{"id":"906026b74a1ed967","type":"ui_tab","name":"ISS","icon":"dashboard","order":41,"disabled":false,"hidden":false}]
```
I'm using the API at... [http://api.open-notify.org/iss-now.json](http://api.open-notify.org/iss-now.json) to obtain the 'lat' & 'lon' of the ISS, then send these details to the worldmap node. I suggest you restrict the Trigger interval to 5-sec or more otherwise the server at open-notify might get a bit stressed. (The animation looks pretty good at 1-sec intervals.)
I hope someone finds this flow useful.
**EDIT:** Updated flow and screenshot with ISS icon.
---
### Author:  [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)
#### Post date: [26 May 2022 13:18 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/show-the-current-position-of-the-international-space-station-iss/63106/2 "2022-05-26T13:18:15Z")
Perhaps if you have a clever student who wants to push ahead, get them to convert the source for open-notify to JavaScript so that Node-RED can go direct to the source 🤯
[Open-Notify-API/iss.py at master · open-notify/Open-Notify-API (github.com)](https://github.com/open-notify/Open-Notify-API/blob/master/iss.py)
---
### Author:  [@dynamicdave](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dynamicdave)
#### Post date: [26 May 2022 13:21 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/show-the-current-position-of-the-international-space-station-iss/63106/3 "2022-05-26T13:21:36Z")
Great idea - thanks Julian.
I'll keep that one up-my-sleeve for one of my "keen" students to tackle.
---
### Author:  [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)
#### Post date: [26 May 2022 16:01 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/show-the-current-position-of-the-international-space-station-iss/63106/4 "2022-05-26T16:01:15Z")
the worldmap does have an ISS icon built in....
---
### Author:  [@E1cid](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/E1cid)
#### Post date: [26 May 2022 16:09 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/show-the-current-position-of-the-international-space-station-iss/63106/5 "2022-05-26T16:09:16Z")
Is the ISS modeled on the [TIE/sh VIP Shuttle](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/TIE/sh_shuttle)?
---
### Author:  [@dynamicdave](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dynamicdave)
#### Post date: [26 May 2022 16:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/show-the-current-position-of-the-international-space-station-iss/63106/6 "2022-05-26T16:13:21Z")
Thanks Dave - I've updated my screenshot and NR-flow to incorporate the ISS icon.
---
### Author:  [@Buckskin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Buckskin)
#### Post date: [26 May 2022 20:27 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/show-the-current-position-of-the-international-space-station-iss/63106/7 "2022-05-26T20:27:26Z")
Amazing. Thank you for sharing
---
### Author:  [@Hopperpop](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Hopperpop)
#### Post date: [26 May 2022 20:43 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/show-the-current-position-of-the-international-space-station-iss/63106/8 "2022-05-26T20:43:39Z")
You can also use following node to calculate the position yourself. That way you can go around the poll limit.
I haven't used the node myself, but I have a similar project where I did the calculations on an esp8266.
> **[node-red-contrib-satellites](https://flows.nodered.org/node/node-red-contrib-satellites)**
>
> A Node-RED node to work with 3d satellite orbit data.
---
### Author:  [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)
#### Post date: [30 May 2022 11:56 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/show-the-current-position-of-the-international-space-station-iss/63106/9 "2022-05-30T11:56:35Z")
Indeed I forgot we had that ! It also includes a 3d world view "earth" node
