SatBeams Satellite Operator & Footprint Scraper

Scrapes the complete geostationary satellite fleet from SatBeams.com — one structured record per satellite with orbital slot, operator, manufacturer, NORAD/Cospar IDs, beacon frequencies, and named footprint beam coverage.

What it does

Performs a two-stage crawl:

1. Index — fetches /satellites (optionally filtered by status), parses the satellite listing table to discover detail page URLs
2. Detail — fetches each /satellites?norad=NNNNN page and extracts the full satellite specification

Each output record includes the complete operational profile: orbital position, operational status, operator, manufacturer, launch details, beacon transponder frequencies, and named footprint/coverage beam zones.

Use cases

• VSAT and teleport engineers researching satellite capacity by orbital slot
• DTH (Direct-to-Home) operators mapping available footprint beams
• Satellite capacity brokers comparing operators and assets by position
• Competitive intelligence on geostationary fleet composition
• Cross-referencing with NORAD/TLE orbital element data from other datasets

Input

Field	Type	Description
maxItems	integer	Maximum number of satellites to scrape. Each satellite = one detail page. Leave blank to scrape all ~650 satellites. Default: 10
statusFilter	string	Filter by operational status: active, planned, moving, testing, retired, deorbited, disabled, failed. Leave blank for all statuses.

Output

One record per satellite with these fields:

Field	Type	Description
satellite_name	string	Full satellite name as listed on SatBeams
norad_id	integer	NORAD catalog number — joins to TLE/orbital element datasets
intl_designator	string	International (COSPAR) designator, e.g. 2019-049B
orbital_position	string	Orbital slot, e.g. 62° E
status	string	Operational status: active, planned, moving, testing, retired, deorbited, disabled, failed
operator	string	Satellite operator / owner
manufacturer	string	Spacecraft bus manufacturer
launch_date	string	Launch date
launch_mass_kg	integer	Launch mass in kilograms
dimensions	string	Physical dimensions (where available)
power_watts	string	Electrical power in watts (where available)
expected_lifetime	string	Design/expected operational lifetime
launch_vehicle	string	Launch vehicle name
launch_site	string	Launch site name
beacon_frequencies	string	Beacon transponder frequencies in MHz (comma-separated)
footprint_beams	string	Named coverage beam/zone names (comma-separated, where published)
detail_url	string	Source URL on SatBeams for this satellite

Example output

{
  "satellite_name": "Intelsat 39 (IS-39)",
  "norad_id": 44476,
  "intl_designator": "2019-049B",
  "orbital_position": "62 E",
  "status": "active",
  "operator": "Intelsat",
  "manufacturer": "Boeing",
  "launch_date": "6-Aug-2019",
  "launch_mass_kg": 6600,
  "dimensions": "",
  "power_watts": "",
  "expected_lifetime": "15 yrs.",
  "launch_vehicle": "Ariane 5 ECA",
  "launch_site": "Guiana Space Center",
  "beacon_frequencies": "3948.5, 3949, 3953, 3953.5, 3951, 10951.0R, 11699.5R",
  "footprint_beams": "C-band East Hemi beam (active), C-band Europe beam (active), C-band West Hemi beam (active), Ku-band Europe beam (active), Ku-band Middle East beam (active)",
  "detail_url": "https://www.satbeams.com/satellites?norad=44476"
}

Notes

• Approximately 650 satellites in the SatBeams index across all statuses (~400 active)
• The actor uses polite request throttling (2-second delay between requests) to respect SatBeams as a community resource
• beacon_frequencies and footprint_beams are only populated where SatBeams publishes the data — not all satellites have complete information
• The norad_id field is the standard join key to link records with TLE orbital element datasets