Our Mission
Built for everyone who looks up.
ORBIT started in a university observatory dome that doubled as a physics classroom on Tuesdays. The projector was borrowed, the sky map was a PDF nobody had updated since 2019, and "live" launch coverage meant a Twitter feed pulled up on a laptop balanced on a filing cabinet. We built the site we wished had existed that semester — one screen that could run a lesson, cover a launch, and still make sense to someone just scrolling before bed.
What we actually optimize for
Three promises, one for each person who relies on this
Fast enough to publish on
If a journalist is filing a story an hour after a scrub, the launch status on ORBIT needs to already say so. We rebuild the transmission ticker and countdown data from source feeds, not from someone's manual update.
Survives a classroom projector
Every EdTech simulation gets tested on a 10-year-old school laptop before it ships, because that's what's actually plugged into the projector. If it stutters there, it's not done.
Credible to someone with money on the line
Data Center exists because "trust us" isn't a pitch. A sortable satellite registry and a dated funding chart are — so an investor can check the numbers themselves.
The Crew
Team
Dr. Layla Hassan
Founder — ran public observation nights for six years before rebuilding the sky map she was tired of apologizing for.
Omar Farouk
Co-founder, Engineering — built the satellite-tracking backend after one too many "is the ISS visible tonight" spreadsheets.
Sara Ahmed
Head of Education — taught high school physics for eight years; still tests every simulation on students before it ships.
Kenji Nakamura
Data & Tracking Lead — built debris-tracking tools for a satellite operator; now keeps ORBIT's registry accurate.
Trusted Data From