Fleet setup
Fleet setup is the first-run wizard that appears the first time you sign in with an empty scene. Its job is simple: get a fleet onto your globe in under a minute, by whichever path matches where your data lives today.
The wizard appears only when all of these are true: you are signed in, you have not completed or dismissed it before, you have no imported assets, and no live fleet API is configured. Once any fleet indicator exists, the console assumes you are operating and stays out of the way.
The fleet setup wizard with its four path cards: Upload fleet files, Connect a live fleet, Load the demo, Generate a synthetic constellation.
The four paths
1. Upload fleet files
Drop in the files you already have. The wizard parses them immediately and shows a per-file preview before anything is imported: detected format, how many satellites and ground stations it found, a sample of the first five recognizable objects, and every validation error or warning with the exact record and reason.
Supported formats and how each behaves in the preview:
| Format | Detected as | Imports as |
|---|---|---|
TLE (.tle, .3le, .txt, pasted text) | tle | Satellites with full SGP4 propagation |
| CSV / JSON / NDJSON tables | table or ground_stations | Satellites and ground stations from inferred columns |
| CCSDS OMM (JSON) | omm | Tabular assets today; the preview extracts normalized mean elements per record, but orbit propagation from mean elements is not wired yet, and the preview says so |
| CCSDS OMM (XML) | omm | Not extracted in preview; raw text retained |
| CCSDS OEM ephemerides | oem | Not importable as fleet assets yet; object names are listed and the raw text is retained for later engines |
| Link or antenna config (EIRP, G/T, frequencies) | link_config | Not an asset; retained for link-budget analysis |
| Demand or service-region tables | demand | Not an asset; retained for capacity analysis |
The preview is honest by construction: it runs the same parsers the real import uses, so what it counts is exactly what will land on the globe. Files that cannot be imported still tell you why, and config-style payloads are kept rather than discarded. Full format details are in Uploads and TLE ingestion.
2. Connect a live fleet
For fleets with real telemetry pipelines. The path is:
- Create a scoped API token (topology read, telemetry write) in Settings.
- Install the fleet agent on your gateways, or post telemetry from your own pipeline to the Telemetry API.
- Run the built-in connection test, which probes reachability, the telemetry subsystem, the topology subsystem, and authenticated topology access as four separate stages, each with its own pass/fail detail and latency.
You can finish agent installation later; the console stays in demo or replay mode until live telemetry is flowing. Token creation and scopes are covered in Settings and API authentication.
3. Load the demo
One click loads the bundled demo fleet: a realistic operator constellation with gateways, feeder links, and a stored telemetry window. Use it to learn the console, rehearse workflows, or evaluate features before wiring anything up. Demo data is clearly separated from live telemetry everywhere it appears.
4. Generate a synthetic constellation
Describe a constellation and the console synthesizes it: satellite count, number of planes, altitude, and inclination, with defaults of 8 satellites in 2 planes at 550 km and 53 degrees if you just want something on the globe. Satellites are spread evenly across planes in a Walker pattern, given real TLEs, and propagated with the same SGP4 pipeline as every other satellite. Synthetic assets are first-class citizens of the scene, permanently labeled as synthetic, and never mixed into live telemetry. This is the fastest way to start mission design work; see Simulations and scenarios.
Skipping the wizard
Choosing "skip" dismisses the wizard permanently for this browser; it will not reappear on the next boot. Nothing is lost: every path remains available afterward. Uploads live in the Assets panel, live connection lives in Settings under API and integrations, and synthetic constellations can be created any time by asking the assistant.
Wizard state is stored in your browser. If browser storage is unavailable, the wizard simply reappears next boot rather than failing.
Example scenarios
Migrating from spreadsheets. An operations team has its ground station list in CSV and its satellite catalog as a 3LE file from their previous tooling. They drop both files into the upload step, see "42 satellites, 6 ground stations, 0 errors" in the preview, import, and their fleet is on the globe with propagated orbits and Ka fronthaul access links.
Evaluating before integrating. An engineer wants to judge the console before touching production telemetry. They load the demo, replay the stored window, run a few assistant analyses, then come back a week later, create a token, and switch to the live path without redoing anything.