Where Can I Find Archived or Historical TLE Data?

Single satellite: 

Insert Satellite > From Standard Object Database;  STK auto-downloads TLEs for specified scenario time period 

1. From a computer connected to the internet, run STK and create a new scenario.
2. Right-click Scenario and go to Properties > Basic > Time.
3. In the Basic Time window, set the Analysis Time Period to be your archived date range.
4. Click OK to close the Scenario Properties window.
5. Click the Insert menu tab and select New....
6. In the Insert STK Objects dialog box, select Satellite on the left and From Standard Object Database on the right and click the Insert... button. The Search Standard Object Data window will appear, giving you access to archived TLEs. 
7. Use the "Name or ID" text box to enter a specific object of interest. Then click the Search button at the bottom.
8. Highlight your satellite in the Results panel and click Insert. This will create a satellite object with your satellite's properties.
9. In the Object Browser, right-click your satellite and got to Properties > Basic > Orbit. 
10. Under TLE Source, click Preview… to see how many TLE Epochs are inside the date range of the scenario. STK will download all TLEs it finds for date ranges you set.

Pros: STK grabs multiple TLEs for specified date range and obtains only the TLEs you request for your specific satellite.
Con:  You must import each satellite TLE set individually.
   

Entire database: 

Download the STK archive; insert a TLE from that archive

First, obtain an archived satellite database. 

1. Go to the Scenario Properties > Basic > Database page and click the Update Database Files... button. The Update Satellite Database dialog box will appear.
2. Select Obtain Archived Database and specify the Archive Date by entering it in the text field or using the selection arrow.
3. Click the Update button. If an archive is not available for the specified date, STK will use the archive for the next newest date instead. 

Second, insert satellites from the archived satellite database.

1. Click the Insert Object icon. From the Insert STK Objects dialog box, select the Satellite object on the left and From TLE File method on the right.
2. Click the Insert... button.
3. Select the appropriate archived database file (e.g., stkAllTLE.tce).
4. Click Open.
5. If a Question dialog box appears asking if you'd like to show the first 5000 results only, click No. 
6. In the Insert From Satellite Database dialog box, under Propagation TLE Sources, click the Modify... button.
7. Clear the "On propagation, automatically retrieve elements"  check box and click OK.
8. Back in the Insert From Satellite Database dialog box, use the Common Name and SSC Number text boxes to search through the archived database for your satellite(s).

 

AGI.com option: 

Sneaker net the archive to a target STK computer with no internet connection

1. Create an account on AGI.com  on a computer with internet access. Stay signed on.
2. Go to Satellite Database page. You can also get to this page by going to help.agi.com and following this path: Support > Support Center> Supporting STK Data > Satellite Database.
3. At the bottom of the page, click the "search the archives" link.  
4. Select from the Satellite Database options, enter an Archive Date, and click GET ARCHIVE.
5. Download each day of interest. You can leave the TCE files as separate files by date, or you can merge them all into one TCE file.
6. Move all the downloaded files to the computer with no internet access and extract the file(s) using a tool that can handle tar.gz files.
7. You can import this file to STK via the Insert New > Satellite > from TLE method.  Upon selecting the TCE file, a search tool will appear to locate your SSC of interest.
8. For scenarios that span more than one day, you must define or import additional elements for each scenario date.  For this, open the Satellite Properties > Basic > Orbit page, click Initial State Tool..., and under New Vector Source select the filename with your TLE for that date. 

Pro: You don't need STK on the computer with internet access.
Cons: You must manually download, unzip, and either import each file for each day in your analysis period or merge the contents of all TCE files into one file.  This is potentially less accurate than STK because archives from this source will grab only one TLE for a given day.