[3] On 27 July 2021, its developer, Martin Schweiger, announced to the community that Orbiter is being published under open source MIT License.

[4] Orbiter was developed by Martin Schweiger, a senior research fellow in the computer science department at University College London,[5] who felt that space flight simulators at the time were lacking in realistic physics-based flight models, and decided to write a simulator that made learning physics concepts enjoyable.

[9] The planetarium mode can also display labels indicating the location and identity of objects in the Solar System, such as planets, moons, or vessels, that appear within a certain proximity based on their type.

This mode can also display labels on the celestial bodies in the Solar System at certain coordinates on their surface for indicating cities, historical markers, geological formations, and other interesting sites.

Since Orbiter 2006 Patch 1, it has supported TrackIR, which allows the simulator to track the head-movements of the player and adjust the view accordingly.

[6] The default version of Orbiter before the 2024 edition had no sound,[1] however popular add-ons called OrbiterSound[18] and XRSound[19] are available.

[24] Another popular category of add-ons are modifications of the standard spacecraft of Orbiter, ranging from simple visual changes to complex simulations of the internal subsystems of these fictional crafts.

[19] Add-ons are also available for new surface bases,[25] MFD modes,[26] extensions of the simulation menu, space stations,[27] planets,[12] and even other planetary systems.