Launch times are in UTC and are from the launching agency or estimated by 'walking back' along the ground track to the launch site. Most orbit data and decay information comes from SpaceTrack but it occasionally contains inconsistencies (eg - incorrect re-entry dates or early sets of elements allocated to the wrong object) that need to be corrected from other sources.

To fill the gaps where elements are not formally published, usually because they have a classification of "Secret", some orbits are based on amateur observations using visual and radio techniques. Such data is published near-daily by Mike McCants, and the source observations along with observers' derived orbits can often be found in the web-based Seesat-L discussion group. Occasionally, early orbit data are published by satellite owners. In extreme cases, orbits are estimated from public data.

Space-Track occasionally fails to allocate names to objects in its catalogue. The SATNOGS online database of radio observations sometimes provides pointers to which Catalogue Number belongs to a satellite being tracked by its contributors.

Apogee and perigee are measured against a spherical Earth situated at the focus of the orbital ellipse and with a radius of 6378.145 km. Shown is the Anomalistic Period, or time to complete one circuit of the ellipse. It is not the same as the time taken to complete one circuit of the Earth. Care should be exercised when comparing with other published orbits because they may have been derived using a different model.

Users can go straight to specific launches by pointing to the page URL followed by the three digit launch number, eg - https://www.OrbitalFocus/Diaries/Launches/Launches.php?year=1957#001