Rocketlauncher

See the next space launch without leaving Omarchy.

Flip-digit Falcon and Starship stats, a local-time countdown (HOLD / LIVE / SOON), ongoing crew, past missions, and Watch in the panel. A native bar-widget, not a browser tab.

Named for Heinlein’s rocket-pilot vibe. Unofficial; not SpaceX-branded.

ID: kenhara.rocketlauncher
Author: Harris Kenny
License: MIT
Version: 1.7.1

1.7.0: fetch watchdog, host allowlist, launch-id and cache fail-closed, Watch resolve timeout. Prior releases: CHANGELOG.md.

Repo: https://github.com/kenhara/omarchy-rocketlauncher

Unofficial disclaimer

Rocketlauncher is unofficial. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (“SpaceX”) or any related entity. This plugin does not ship SpaceX logos, wordmarks, or brand assets. Mission/vehicle names and trademarks mentioned in launch data belong to their respective owners. Launch schedules and imagery metadata come from Launch Library 2 (The Space Devs); the plugin links to LL2-hosted images and does not redistribute those binaries.

Discoverability

Marketplace card: Widgets · tags bar, media, quickshell.

Search words include space, Falcon, Starship, SpaceX, NASA, webcast. Display name stays Rocketlauncher (brand-free).

Install

From GitHub

omarchy plugin add https://github.com/kenhara/omarchy-rocketlauncher.git --enable
omarchy bar move kenhara.rocketlauncher --section right

Local copy

The git repo root is the plugin (manifest.json at root). On an Omarchy machine:

mkdir -p ~/.config/omarchy/plugins
cp -a . ~/.config/omarchy/plugins/kenhara.rocketlauncher

omarchy plugin validate ~/.config/omarchy/plugins/kenhara.rocketlauncher
omarchy-shell shell rescanPlugins
omarchy bar move kenhara.rocketlauncher --section right

Hot reload applies on save under ~/.config/omarchy/plugins/.

Optional dependencies (in-panel Watch)

Watch embeds when possible via Qt Multimedia + a small localhost helper:

Dep	Why
python3	Runs scripts/stream-proxy.py
yt-dlp	Resolves YouTube / (sometimes) X / other webcast URLs to a playable stream

# Arch / Omarchy examples
sudo pacman -S python yt-dlp
# or: python3 -m pip install --user yt-dlp

yt-dlp must be importable by system python3 (pacman / pip --user). A pipx-only install is not seen by the helper.

Without these, WATCH still works: the panel shows a thumbnail fallback and Open original (or the store opens the URL externally). The plugin never bundles binaries and never runs remote installers.

Usage

• Left-click the bar rocket + short countdown (14h 06m / 06:22; tooltip keeps T-HH:MM:SS) to open/close the panel. Opening fetches mission detail for the next launch (cached by id after the first hit). Middle-click play/pauses Watch when active, otherwise refreshes data. Right-click starts Watch for the next launch.
• Past Missions — expand the section in the panel to load the last few SpaceX launches (/launches/previous/, lazy on first expand to save free-tier quota). Tap a card for the same on-demand mission detail as Next / Upcoming. Offline sample cache ships a few past rows from research fixtures.
• Ongoing missions — expand the section; LOCATE (on click) proves a docked ISS fix or shows a static course / NO PUBLIC TRACK. Not on the refresh cycle.
• Crew avatars with a Wikipedia / LL2 astronaut URL are clickable (opens in the browser). Pointer cursor only appears on actionable controls.
• Tap the next-launch card to expand/collapse detail (description, pad, landing, patch, crew when present). Starlink-style flights omit the empty crew section.
• WATCH prefers an in-panel player (YouTube / HLS when yt-dlp can resolve). Official webcasts are often X broadcasts — those try yt-dlp first, then degrade to the webcast feature_image + Open original. We never claim X always embeds.
• Flip counters animate when totals change.

Controls

Input	Action
Left-click bar	Toggle panel
Middle-click bar	If Watch is active: play/pause; else refresh launch data
Right-click bar	Open Watch for next launch (panel opens; falls back toward Open original when no webcast)
Escape	Close panel (see stickyWatch below)
Space	Play / pause Watch (or start Watch for next launch)
M	Mute / unmute
O	Open original webcast URL
S	Stop Watch (tears down player + proxy even when sticky)
WATCH button	Start in-panel Watch
PLAY / PAUSE / MUTE / OPEN ORIGINAL	Same as keys, on the Watch chrome
Tap next-launch card	Expand / collapse mission detail
Tap upcoming / past card	Expand / collapse mission detail for that id
Past Missions header	Expand section (lazy-loads previous launches once)
Crew avatar (when linked)	Open Wikipedia / LL2 astronaut page

stickyWatch (Meet-style PiP)

Schema default is false (pause-on-hide). When true, Watch aims to stay up while you work, like Meet PiP — Esc / click-away hides the panel but MediaPlayer + stream-proxy.py keep running from a BarWidget-hoisted player (outlives the keyboard panel). Treat sticky playback as best-effort until verified on a live Omarchy shell / UTM VM.

• stickyWatch: false (default): Esc / hide pauses Watch, clears the stream URL, and stops stream-proxy.py. Reopening does not auto-resume — press WATCH / PLAY (or Space) again.
• stickyWatch: true: Esc / hide keeps MediaPlayer + the localhost proxy running in the background. The bar can show a ▶ glyph while Watch is active. Press S or the Watch × control to fully stop. Optional systemd-inhibit --what=idle runs while sticky Watch is playing (no privilege; skipped quietly if systemd-inhibit is missing). There is no safe hyprctl idle-inhibit dispatcher, so we do not call one.

IPC

omarchy-shell shell toggle kenhara.rocketlauncher
omarchy-shell shell hide kenhara.rocketlauncher

Rocketlauncher is bar-widget only — use left / middle / right clicks on the bar (and the keys above) rather than inventing summon payloads. Middle-click play/pauses Watch when active, otherwise refreshes launch data; right-click starts Watch for the next launch.

Optional Hyprland bind

Paste into your own Hypr config if you want a key — Rocketlauncher does not edit ~/.config/hypr/ or shell.json for you:

# hyprland.conf / binds.conf (example only)
bind = SUPER, L, exec, omarchy-shell shell toggle kenhara.rocketlauncher

Configure

Omarchy has no widget-settings GUI. Prefer the in-panel toggles; CLI / shell.json are secondary.

1) In-panel Bar (preferred)

Open Rocketlauncher → scroll to the Bar section near the footer:

• Countdown on bar — On/Off (default On). When Off, the bar chip is just the rocket (optional mission name still respects barShowMissionName via CLI); countdown stays in the panel and tooltip.

Edits update the live store and mirror into bar settings so they survive reload.

2) CLI (omarchy bar set)

omarchy bar set kenhara.rocketlauncher barShowCountdown false
omarchy bar set kenhara.rocketlauncher barShowMissionName true

3) ~/.config/omarchy/shell.json / schema

Key	Type	Default	Description
refreshIntervalSec	integer	1800	Poll interval in seconds. Minimum 600 so the free Launch Library 2 tier (15 req/hour) is never hammered.
notifyMilestones	bool	false	Opt-in notify-send once per launch id at T−10 and T−0 (debounced in ~/.cache/rocketlauncher/cache.json).
barShowMissionName	bool	false	Prefix the bar countdown with a short mission name (CLI / shell.json; no in-panel switch).
barShowCountdown	bool	true	Show NET countdown on the bar chip. Prefer the in-panel Countdown on bar toggle. When off, chip is just the rocket (mission name still respects barShowMissionName); countdown stays in panel + tooltip.
stickyWatch	bool	false	Keep Watch playing when the panel hides — Meet-style PiP (see above).
watchQuality	enum	best	best, 720, or 480 — passed to scripts/stream-proxy.py as yt-dlp height preference.
flipAnimate	bool	true	Animate flip-digit counters when totals change.

Remove

omarchy plugin remove kenhara.rocketlauncher

Optional cache cleanup:

rm -rf ~/.cache/rocketlauncher

Data & network

Primary API: Launch Library 2 (The Space Devs)
Base: https://ll.thespacedevs.com/2.3.0/ · Falcon / Starship launches via LSP agency id 121

Refresh cycle (default every 30 minutes, never faster than every 10)

Up to three list GETs on the regular refresh cycle:

1. GET /agencies/121/ — totals (launches, landings, pending, consecutive successes)
2. GET /launches/upcoming/?lsp__id=121&limit=5&mode=list — upcoming list (compact)
3. GET /spacecraft/?search=Crew%20Dragon&in_space=true — ongoing Crew Dragon

On-click LOCATE (not on this cycle): LL2 spacecraft_flights + CelesTrak SATCAT/TLE.

Past missions (lazy)

On first expand of the Past Missions section (not on every refresh):

4. GET /launches/previous/?lsp__id=121&limit=5&mode=list — recent past launches

Bundled data/sample-cache.json includes offline past rows from docs/research/samples/ll2-spacex-previous-*.json.

Mission detail (on demand)

When you open the panel or expand the next / upcoming / past card:

5. GET /launches/{id}/ — one detailed fetch per id, then cached in ~/.cache/rocketlauncher/cache.json and in-memory launchDetails.

Do not detailed-fetch every upcoming/past row. Stay under the free tier (15 req/hour).

Cache path: ~/.cache/rocketlauncher/cache.json
Offline fixtures: data/sample-cache.json, plus data/sample-detail-crew.json / data/sample-detail-starlink.json for UI demos.

Labels are honest LL2 agency fields:

• LAUNCHES → total_launch_count
• Landings → successful_landings
• Pending → pending_launches

No API key is used (free tier). No scrapers, no sudo, no second Quickshell process. Pure QML + Qt network (+ optional local yt-dlp helper for Watch).

Privacy and safety

• Network: ll.thespacedevs.com for launch data (https, host pinned after redirects); on-click LOCATE also hits celestrak.org (SATCAT + ISS TLE). When Watch is used, yt-dlp contacts the webcast host (YouTube / X / etc.) over https only and the helper binds 127.0.0.1 only. Webcast / image URLs that are not https are dropped.
• Disk: read/write ~/.cache/rocketlauncher/cache.json (atomic helper write; reads refuse symlink/FIFO); read bundled samples.
• Opens user-selected https webcast URLs in the default browser as a fallback.
• Optional notify-send toasts when notifyMilestones is enabled (FreeDesktop Notifications; -- before title/body).
• Optional systemd-inhibit --what=idle while stickyWatch Watch is playing (user-session inhibit only; not used when sticky is off).
• Zero privilege beyond normal desktop user permissions inside omarchy-shell.

License

MIT — see LICENSE. Copyright (c) 2026 Harris Kenny.

Icons from Phosphor Icons (regular weight) by Helena Zhang and Tobias Fried, MIT. Paths are bundled in PhosphorIcon.qml and painted with QML Shape/Path — no remote webfont, no Image.source of SVG.

Launch data © The Space Devs / Launch Library 2 contributors. Imagery URLs in samples may carry CC BY-NC or NASA terms — this plugin does not redistribute those binaries; it only links or references metadata. No SpaceX logos or wordmarks are shipped. Unofficial; not affiliated with SpaceX or NASA.