Minute-by-Minute ISS Position Feed to ActiveMQ

Overview

This workflow fetches the current position of the International Space Station (ISS) every minute using the free WhereTheISS.at API and publishes the latitude, longitude, timestamp, and satellite name to an ActiveMQ topic. It is an ideal template for real-time space tracking, educational demonstrations, or integrating satellite data into messaging-based architectures.

The workflow uses a Cron trigger to run every minute without manual intervention, an HTTP Request node to call the API, a Set node to extract and reshape the data, and an AMQP Sender node to push the message to ActiveMQ.

Node-by-Node Breakdown

• Cron (No auth) — Triggers the workflow every minute. The triggerTimes parameter is set to everyMinute, ensuring consistent polling of the ISS position.
• HTTP Request (No auth) — Calls https://api.wheretheiss.at/v1/satellites/25544/positions with a dynamic query parameter timestamps set to ={{Date.now();}}. This ensures each request uses the current Unix timestamp, returning the ISS position at that exact moment. No authentication is required because the API is public.
• Set (No auth) — Extracts specific fields from the API response: latitude, longitude, timestamp (as numbers) and name (as a string). The option keepOnlySet is enabled, meaning only these four fields are passed forward. It references the previous HTTP Request node via expressions like $node["HTTP Request"].json["0"]["latitude"].
• AMQP Sender (AMQP Credentials) — Sends the processed data to the ActiveMQ topic named iss-position. The sink parameter defines the topic or queue (here it is iss-position). The node requires configured AMQP credentials (host, port, username, password) to connect to the broker.

Setup Instructions

1. ActiveMQ Broker — You need a running ActiveMQ (or any AMQP-compatible broker like RabbitMQ with the AMQP plugin enabled). Obtain the broker's host, port, and credentials (username/password).
2. n8n Credentials — In n8n, create a new AMQP credential using the broker details. Attach this credential to the AMQP Sender node.
3. No API Key Required — The WhereTheISS.at API is open and does not require registration or authentication.
4. Enable the Workflow — Activate the workflow to start the cron trigger. Every minute a message containing the current ISS position will be published to the iss-position topic.

Use Cases & Variations

• Real-time Dashboarding — Connect a separate workflow that subscribes to the ActiveMQ topic and feeds data into a real-time dashboard (e.g., via WebSocket or a charting tool).
• Multiple Satellites — Change the satellite ID in the URL (e.g., 25544 for ISS) to track other satellites. The endpoint supports various IDs.
• Different Messaging Systems — Replace the AMQP Sender with an MQTT node, Kafka node, or even a Webhook to adapt to different messaging infrastructure.
• Data Enrichment — Add HTTP Request nodes to fetch location names (reverse geocoding) or weather data at the ISS coordinates.
• Logging & Storage — Append a Google Sheets or database node after the Set node to archive the position history for later analysis.

{
  "id": "102",
  "name": "Send updates about the position of the ISS every minute to a topic in ActiveMQ",
  "nodes": [
    {
      "name": "Cron",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.cron",
      "position": [
        510,
        300
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "triggerTimes": {
          "item": [
            {
              "mode": "everyMinute"
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      "typeVersion": 1
    },
    {
      "name": "HTTP Request",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "position": [
        710,
        300
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "url": "https://api.wheretheiss.at/v1/satellites/25544/positions",
        "options": {},
        "queryParametersUi": {
          "parameter": [
            {
              "name": "timestamps",
              "value": "={{Date.now();}}"
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      "typeVersion": 1
    },
    {
      "name": "Set",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.set",
      "position": [
        910,
        300
      ],
// ... truncated (copy to see full JSON)