Spaceflight News Scraper

Spaceflight News Scraper

Scrape spaceflight news articles, blogs, and reports from 50+ sources, up to a million per run. Filter by keyword, news site, launch, or event, and get each item with its title, summary, image, and publication date. No API key or login. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Spaceflight News API needs no key, but querying it by hand means writing code, handling pagination, and shaping the JSON yourself. This Actor reads the public Spaceflight News API directly, filters by keyword, source, launch, event, or date, and returns each match in one flat row. It covers NASA, SpaceX, ESA, and dozens of other space news outlets.

Who uses it	What they scrape Spaceflight News for
Market researchers	Track which space topics and companies are getting media coverage this week
Journalists	Monitor breaking space news across 50+ outlets without visiting each site
Space enthusiasts	Build a personal archive of articles about Starship, James Webb, or Mars missions
Data analysts	Collect a clean dataset of space news for trend analysis or NLP projects
App developers	Feed a space news app or dashboard with fresh, structured article data

What it does

This Actor collects spaceflight news articles, blogs, and reports from the Spaceflight News API and returns each one as a flat row with title, summary, image, source, and publication date.

• 🔎 Keyword search: search across title, summary, and body for terms like Starship, James Webb, or Mars.
• 📰 Source filter: restrict results to one news site, such as NASA, SpaceNews, or Arstechnica.
• 🚀 Launch and event links: find articles tied to a specific Launch Library 2 launch UUID or event ID.
• 📅 Date range: set publishedAfter and publishedBefore to collect only articles from a chosen window.
• ⭐ Featured only: return only items marked as featured or highlighted.
• 📊 Flexible ordering: sort by newest, oldest, featured, or recently updated.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with Spaceflight News data

📈 Track media coverage of a launch.

A space industry analyst sets launchId to a specific Launch Library 2 UUID and collects every article about that mission to measure press attention.

🔎 Monitor a topic across outlets.

A researcher sets search to 'Artemis' and newsSite to 'NASA' to gather all NASA articles mentioning the Artemis program for a weekly digest.

🗞️ Build a space news feed.

A developer runs the Actor daily with contentType 'all' and ordering 'newest first' to populate a website or app with the latest space news.

📚 Archive historical coverage.

A space enthusiast sets publishedBefore to a past date and collects all articles from that period to build a personal archive of spaceflight history.

🧪 Create a dataset for analysis.

A data scientist collects thousands of articles with search 'Mars' and exports to CSV for sentiment analysis or topic modeling.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	The public Spaceflight News API requires no registration or authentication
50+ sources	Covers NASA, SpaceX, ESA, and dozens of other space news outlets
Flat output	Each article, blog, or report becomes one row with title, summary, image, and date
Launch-linked	Filter by Launch Library 2 launch UUID or event ID to get mission-specific coverage
Scalable	Collect up to 1,000,000 items per run

How it compares

This Actor offers more filtering options than the other Spaceflight News scrapers, including launch ID, event ID, featured-only, and date range, while still requiring no API key.

Feature	ParseForge	SpaceFlight News Scraper (1 users)	Spaceflight News Scraper (3 users)	Spaceflight News Scraper - Space Articles, Blogs & Reports (2 users)
Keyword search	Yes	Not listed	Yes	Yes
News site filter	Yes	Not listed	Yes	Not listed
Launch ID filter	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Event ID filter	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Date range filter	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Featured only filter	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Sorting options	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from a keyword, news site, launch ID, event ID, or date range, alone or together, and filters run as each item is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "contentType": "articles",
  "ordering": "-published_at",
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "contentType": "articles",
  "ordering": "-published_at",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0395 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$3.95
1,000 results	$39.50
10,000 results	$395.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the Spaceflight News Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to Spaceflight News through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/spaceflight-news-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check your filters. If you set a keyword, news site, launch ID, event ID, or date range, they all must match. Try removing filters one by one to see which one is too restrictive.

Why are results not sorted as expected?

Make sure you set the ordering field correctly. The default is newest first. If you want featured items first, choose 'Featured first'.

Why do I get fewer items than maxItems?

The API may not have that many items matching your filters. Try broadening your search or removing some filters.

Why is the newsSite filter not working?

The newsSite filter requires an exact match. Check the source name spelling. Examples: 'NASA', 'SpaceNews', 'Arstechnica', 'ESA'.

Why are some fields empty?

Not every article has a summary, image, or launch link. The API returns what is available. Empty fields are normal for some items.

Can I get the full article text?

This Actor returns the summary and metadata from the Spaceflight News API, not the full article body. For full text, you would need to scrape the original news sites.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need an API key?	No. This Actor uses the public Spaceflight News API, which requires no authentication or registration.
What sources does it cover?	It covers NASA, SpaceX, ESA, and 50+ other space news outlets, including SpaceNews, Arstechnica, NASASpaceflight, and Spaceflight Now.
Can I filter by a specific launch?	Yes. Set launchId to a Launch Library 2 UUID to get only articles linked to that launch.
Can I filter by event?	Yes. Set eventId to a Launch Library 2 numeric event ID to get articles linked to that event.
What is the difference between articles, blogs, and reports?	The Spaceflight News API categorizes content into articles (news stories), blogs (opinion or informal posts), and reports (official documents or detailed analyses). You can choose one type or all.
How do I search by keyword?	Use the search field. It searches across title, summary, and body text for the term you enter, such as 'Starship' or 'James Webb'.
Can I limit results to a date range?	Yes. Set publishedAfter and publishedBefore in YYYY-MM-DD format to collect only articles published within that window.
What output formats are supported?	You can export the dataset to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify platform.
How many items can I collect?	You can set maxItems up to 1,000,000 per run.
Is the data live?	Yes. Each run queries the Spaceflight News API in real time, so you get the latest available articles.
Can I schedule this Actor?	Yes. You can set up a schedule in Apify to run it daily, weekly, or at any interval.
What is the cost?	The Actor runs on Apify's platform, and you pay only for the compute resources used. The Spaceflight News API itself is free.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Spaceflight News API. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.