Celestial MCP Server

Celestial MCP server is a locally run integration for AI assistants that speak the Model Context Protocol. Real-time space data — ISS tracking, rocket launches, space news, Mars weather, and more.

What you get

An MCP server for real-time space data from Celestial Node.

Celestial Node is a comprehensive space data platform that aggregates real-time information from space agencies worldwide. It offers:

What the assistant can call

Once Celestial is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:

• get_iss_position — Real-time ISS position (lat, lon, altitude, velocity)
• get_tiangong_position — Real-time Tiangong station position
• get_crew_in_space — Astronauts/cosmonauts/taikonauts currently in orbit
• get_upcoming_launches — Upcoming rocket launches worldwide
• get_space_news — Curated space news from NASA, ESA, CNSA, JAXA, Roscosmos, ISRO
• get_mars_missions — All 18 Mars missions with instruments and discoveries
• get_mars_rovers — Mars rovers with instruments, discoveries, and status
• get_mars_weather — Mars surface weather (temperature, pressure, wind)
• search_stars — Search 1M+ stars from ESA Gaia catalog
• get_star_details — Full astronomical data for a star by Gaia source ID
• get_constellations — All 88 IAU constellations
• get_near_earth_objects — Upcoming asteroid close approaches

Setting it up

celestialnode-mcp on npm is all you need. Most clients run it directly, so configuration is a few lines and a restart.

Configuration and credentials

You will need one environment variable: CELESTIAL_NODE_API_KEY. The server will not start without them, which is usually why the tools fail to appear on a first run. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.

Choosing this one

Among the developer tooling options, the useful question is rarely "what can it do" but "what does it cost you to run" — permissions, credentials, and how much of your context its toolset consumes. Celestial's toolset — get_iss_position, get_tiangong_position, get_crew_in_space and 11 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by christerso; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

SyncDev reviews every entry in this directory against the project's own documentation before publishing, and revisits them as servers change.

Before you rely on it

• It runs with your machine's permissions. That is convenient and also the reason to think about what you point it at before you approve a tool call.
• With 14 tools registered it takes up a noticeable share of the context window; turn it off in projects that never touch Celestial.
• Missing credentials fail quietly in some clients — if no tools show up, check the environment block first.
• MCP clients confirm each tool call by default. Leave that on until you have watched what the celestial mcp server does with a few real requests.