Unlock the r/SpaceX Open REST API: Access All Rocket Data with Python and Docker

Overview

The r/SpaceX community maintains a public REST API that aggregates all publicly available SpaceX data since the company's inception, including rockets, Dragon capsules, Starship, launch history, core stages, landing gear, payloads, and related information.

API Structure

The API is organized into three components:

clients – a collection of existing SpaceX‑related API wrappers that simplify data discovery.

app – sample applications built on the data.

raw data – MongoDB collections that store the original JSON records.

Data Retrieval

All endpoints return JSON. Client libraries are available for C#, Python, PHP, and Objective‑C. Below is a Python example that queries the /v3/history endpoint to obtain historical mission records.

import requests

url = "https://api.spacexdata.com/v3/history"
response = requests.get(url)
print(response.text.encode('utf8'))

The response is a JSON array containing detailed historical records of SpaceX missions.

Sample Applications

Open‑source projects consume the API, for example:

SpaceXLaunches.com – a web site that provides real‑time launch tracking.

SpaceX GO! – a mobile app for on‑the‑go launch information.

Deployment Options

The backend runs on MongoDB and can be deployed via Docker or directly on a local machine. The source code is hosted at https://github.com/r-spacex/SpaceX-API.

Docker deployment :

git clone https://github.com/r-spacex/SpaceX-API.git && cd SpaceX-API
docker-compose build
docker-compose up

Local deployment (no Docker) :

git clone https://github.com/r-spacex/SpaceX-API.git && cd SpaceX-API
npm install
npm test   # run test suite
# after tests, start the API server

Getting Started

Developers can clone the repository, explore the documentation at https://docs.spacexdata.com/?version=latest, and build custom tools or analyses using the public data. The data is freely available for personal use, with the underlying content owned by SpaceX.