Delta-V is two things sharing a name: a spaceflight console and a game. The console publishes live countdowns for every upcoming orbital launch on Earth, hourly spaceflight news, the position of the ISS, space weather, and near-Earth objects — all assembled from public feeds run by The Space Devs, the Spaceflight News API, NASA and NOAA, each credited below. The game is a gravity-flight simulator about orbital mechanics, free to play in a browser and free to install on Android. Both are made by one independent developer, and neither is affiliated with any space agency or launch provider.
What this site is
Launch information is scattered. It lives in agency press kits, range advisories, operator livestreams and a dozen news sites that each cover a slice of it. The console pulls the useful parts into one place and presents them the way flight hardware would: dense, monospaced, and honest about what it does not know.
- Launches — every upcoming orbital launch with a live countdown, the window, the pad, the vehicle and the payload, plus what has recently flown.
- News — headlines from across spaceflight publishing, refreshed continuously and linked back to whoever wrote them.
- Live — where the ISS is right now, the current geomagnetic and solar picture, and the near-Earth objects on approach.
- Agencies — the operators and space agencies behind the launches, and what each one has flying next.
- Play — Delta-V itself, running in the browser.
Everything is rendered on the server and cached, which is what keeps the pages fast and keeps the upstream feeds inside their rate limits. The refresh windows are listed in the panel alongside this text.
Where the data comes from
None of this data is ours. It is collected, verified and published by other people who make it available for free, and crediting them is the price of keeping it that way:
- The Space Devs — Launch Library 2
- Spaceflight News API
- NASA APOD & NeoWs
- NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
- Where the ISS at?
Delta-V republishes that data as-is. Launch times in particular are provisional — they move for weather, range conflicts and hardware, sometimes minutes before ignition — so a countdown here is a best estimate, never a guarantee. Do not plan travel around it without confirming with the launch provider. The full disclaimer is in the Terms of Use.
Agency names, vehicle names, logos and mission patches belong to their owners and appear for identification only.
The game
Delta-V the game came first; this site is its official hub. It is a gravity-flight simulator: every body pulls, fuel is the only currency that matters, and the difference between a slingshot and a crater is a few metres per second at periapsis. There is no orbital mechanics degree required and no tutorial wall — you plot a burn, commit, and find out whether you budgeted for the way back.
The browser build on the Play page is the same game, running on Phaser, with no account and no install. The Android build (package com.wyatt.deltav) adds cloud saves, leaderboards, achievements and the deep-field story collection. It is free, carries banner ads on menu screens and optional rewarded video, and sells in-app items that no level requires you to own.
What the app collects, and what it does not, is set out in full in the Privacy Policy.
Who makes it
One independent developer, working alone, on both the game and the site. There is no studio, no publisher and no investor — which is worth knowing, because it explains the response time on a support email and the fact that a feature sometimes ships at two in the morning.
Delta-V is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by NASA, SpaceX, ESA, Rocket Lab, ULA, Arianespace, or any other agency, operator or manufacturer named anywhere on this site.
How it pays for itself
Running this costs money — hosting, feeds above the free tier, store fees — and the funding model is deliberately boring:
- Advertising. Display ads on the website when a publisher account is configured, and banner plus opt-in rewarded ads inside the Android app. No full-screen ad interrupts a run.
- In-app purchases. Cosmetic and convenience items in the game. Nothing behind a paywall is required to finish it.
- The depot. Printed merchandise sold through the shop and fulfilled by Shopify.
- Affiliate links. Some outbound links to books, telescopes and gear may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. They never change what the site says about a launch, and no editorial content is sold.
What is not part of the model: selling your data, which is covered in the Privacy Policy and is not something Delta-V does.
Common questions
Who runs Delta-V?
Delta-V is built and run by one independent developer. It is not affiliated with NASA, SpaceX, ESA, Rocket Lab or any other agency or launch operator, and none of them endorse it. Their names and data appear here for identification and attribution only.
Where does the launch data come from?
Launch schedules, pads, vehicles and agencies come from The Space Devs' Launch Library 2. News headlines come from the Spaceflight News API. The Astronomy Picture of the Day and near-Earth object figures come from NASA, space weather from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, and the ISS position from Where the ISS at. Every one of those feeds is credited with a link on this page.
How often does the data update?
Launch schedules refresh every 15 minutes, news every 30 minutes, and the ISS position roughly every 10 seconds. Reference data that rarely changes, such as agency and vehicle records, refreshes twice a day. Launch times themselves move constantly at the source, so treat any countdown as provisional.
Is Delta-V free to play?
Yes. The browser version is free and needs no account, and the Android app is free to install. The app carries menu banner ads and optional rewarded video, and sells in-app items you never have to buy to finish the game.
Something on the site is wrong. Can you fix it?
If a countdown, pad or agency detail is wrong, the error is almost always upstream in Launch Library 2, and correcting it there fixes it everywhere including here. If the site itself is broken — a panel that fails to load, a page that will not render — send a report to the contact address in the privacy policy.
Corrections and contact
Bug reports, data corrections, licensing questions and privacy requests all go to the address published in the Privacy Policy. Upstream data errors are best fixed at the source — a correction accepted by Launch Library 2 propagates to every site using it, including this one.