To make the program work, you need to download a text file containing the orbit parameters (height, speed, eccentricity and so forth) for the spacecraft you are interested in following. These 2-line elements (or TLE) files are freely available from several different sites on the internet. STSPLUS reads the data, and constantly updates the position of the spacecraft on the graphical display shown above. Best of all, for all its apparent complexity, STSPLUS will run (I have personally done this, so I know it's true!!!) on anything from a 386dx40 upwards, and requires less than 1MB (Yes, thats one Megabyte) of memory.

The latest version of STSPLUS can be downloaded from the authors web site. Please note the request that the author makes for a (small and entirely optional) donation to help fund the continued development of this fine piece of software.

I didn't realize at the time that I grabbed this screen shot, but if you look closely, you will see that this picture shows the old MIR space station to be pretty damn close to the (then recently launched) International Space Station (ISS) - I guess if there was anybody on board ISS, they could have waved as they went past!