// the find
r-spacex/SpaceX-API
:rocket: Open Source REST API for SpaceX launch, rocket, core, capsule, starlink, launchpad, and landing pad data.
Community-maintained REST API serving SpaceX launch, rocket, capsule, Starlink, and launchpad data. Backed by MongoDB with cron jobs that sync from official sources and launch-library. Useful if you're building a side project, dashboard, or learning project that wants real aerospace data without scraping it yourself.
Clean MongoDB + Koa stack with well-structured route/model separation — each entity lives in its own file, easy to follow. Flexible POST /query endpoint exposing MongoDB operators directly, so you can filter launches by date range or success status without custom endpoints. Cron jobs with healthcheck.io monitoring give you visibility into when the data was last updated. Docker image available, so self-hosting for rate-limit-free access is straightforward.
Last commit is August 2024 and SpaceX has launched frequently since — Starship orbital flights, Falcon 9 booster reuse records — so the data is already stale and will only get more so. Exposing raw MongoDB query operators to public callers (the POST /query pattern) is a significant attack surface if any sensitive collections slip in; the admin routes suggest there's data you don't want public. No GraphQL or pagination cursor, so fetching all 200+ Starlink satellites means pulling the full collection. The community-maintained disclaimer is load-bearing: this has broken before when SpaceX changed their site, and there's no SLA.