Find ISS Location

Note: This is an original writing sample based on the public Open Notify API. All content was independently written and structured to reflect professional API documentation standards.

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Endpoint

GET http://api.open-notify.org/iss-now.json

Description

Returns real-time latitude and longitude coordinates of the ISS.

Authentication

No authentication is required – this is a public API.

Request Parameters

None

Example Request

GET  http://api.open-notify.org/iss-now.json

Example Reponse

{
  "message": "success",
  "timestamp": 1750789753,
  "iss_position": {
    "longitude": "-112.0920",
    "latitude": "13.6829"
  }
}

Response Fields

Field	Type	Description
message	string	Status of the response (e.g. “success” or “failure”)
timestamp	int	Time the data was retrieved (UNIX epoch format)
iss_position	object	Object containing latitude and longitude fields
latitude	string	Latitude of the ISS
longitude	string	Longitude of the ISS

Possible Errors

Code	Message	Description
400	Not found	Invalid endpoint or mistyped URL
500	Internal Server Error	Temporary issue with the Open Notify server

Notes

• The ISS location is only updated once every second. A single client should keep polling to about once every 5 seconds to reduce strain to the servers.

• Latitude and longitude return strings rather than floats.