🚀 SpaceX Launches and Rockets Scraper

🚀 Pull every SpaceX launch with rocket, payloads, success flag, launch site, mission patch, webcast URL, and full mission details.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-05-07 · 📊 35 fields per record · 500+ launches · 200+ payloads · 100+ launchpads, capsules, cores, ships · launches, rockets, capsules, cores, launchpads, payloads

The SpaceX Launches and Rockets Scraper pulls every SpaceX launch from the public SpaceX-API. Output includes flight number, launch name, date (UTC + local), success flag, mission patch image, webcast URL, rocket details, launchpad info with geo coordinates, payload IDs, crew/ship/capsule/core IDs, articles, Wikipedia link, Reddit campaigns, and YouTube ID.

The dataset covers 500+ launches since the company's 2006 first launch through current operations, plus 200+ payloads, every active and retired rocket, every Dragon capsule and Falcon core, every launchpad and landpad, and the recovery fleet. Eight endpoints in one Actor: launches, rockets, capsules, cores, launchpads, landpads, payloads, ships.

🎯 Target Audience	💡 Primary Use Cases
Space enthusiasts, science journalists, aerospace researchers, museum exhibits, fan communities, ML pipelines	Space-news content, fan apps, retrospectives, retro-launch viewers, ML on orbital launch data, museum content

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📋 What the SpaceX Launches and Rockets Scraper does

Five filtering workflows in a single run:

• 🚀 Full launch history. Every SpaceX launch with rich metadata.
• 🪧 Mission patches. High-res patch image URL per launch.
• 🎬 Webcast + Reddit + Wikipedia. Direct links to live coverage and discussion.
• 🏷️ 8 endpoints. Launches, rockets, capsules, cores, launchpads, landpads, payloads, ships.
• 🔍 Filters. Year, success-only, upcoming-only, rocket-name.

💡 Why it matters: clean, server-side filtering and fresh data on every run.

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🎬 Full Demo

🚧 Coming soon: a 3-minute walkthrough showing how to go from sign-up to a downloaded dataset.

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⚙️ Input

Input	Type	Default	Behavior
maxItems	integer	10	Records to return. Free plan caps at 10, paid plan up to 1,000,000.
endpoint	string	"launches"	launches, rockets, capsules, cores, launchpads, landpads, payloads, ships.
successOnly	boolean	false	Restrict to successful launches.
upcomingOnly	boolean	false	Restrict to future launches.
yearFilter	string	""	Year filter (e.g. 2024).

Example: every successful 2024 launch.

{
    "maxItems": 100,
    "endpoint": "launches",
    "successOnly": true,
    "yearFilter": "2024"
}

Example: all upcoming launches + Falcon Heavy.

{
    "maxItems": 50,
    "endpoint": "launches",
    "upcomingOnly": true
}

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📊 Output

Each record contains 35 fields. Download as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

🧾 Schema

Field	Type	Example
🪧 patchImage	string	"https://images2.imgbox.com/.../patch.png"
📛 name	string	"SWOT"
🔢 flightNumber	number	197
📅 dateUtc	string	"2022-12-05T00:00:00Z"
✅ success	boolean	true
⏳ upcoming	boolean	false
🚀 rocketName	string	"Falcon 9"
🚀 rocketType	string	"rocket"
🏛️ launchpadName	string	"Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 4E"
🌍 launchpadLat	number	34.6321
👥 payloadCount	number	1
🎬 webcastUrl	string	"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..."
📰 articleUrl	string	"https://spaceflightnow.com/..."
📚 wikipediaUrl	string	"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT"
📝 details	string	"SpaceX Falcon 9 will launch the SWOT satellite..."

📦 Sample records

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✨ Why choose this Actor

	Capability
🚀	Full SpaceX history. Every launch from 2006 to current operations.
🏷️	8 endpoints in one Actor. Launches, rockets, capsules, cores, launchpads, landpads, payloads, ships.
🪧	Mission patches included. Direct image URLs for each launch.
🎬	Webcast + article links. Wikipedia, Reddit, YouTube IDs included.
⚡	Fast. 100 records in under 20 seconds.

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📈 How it compares to alternatives

Approach	Cost	Coverage	Refresh	Filters	Setup
⭐ This Actor	$5 free credit	500+ launches	Live per run	8 endpoints, multi-filter	⚡ 2 min
Manual SpaceX site	Free	Manual	Live	Web filters	🕒 Manual
Eric Berger live coverage	Free (paid newsletter)	Editorial	Variable	None	🕒 Manual
Custom SpaceX-API setup	Free	All	Live	DIY	🐢 Days

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🚀 How to use

1. 📝 Sign up. Create a free account with $5 credit (takes 2 minutes).
2. 🌐 Open the Actor. Find the SpaceX Launches and Rockets Scraper on the Apify Store.
3. 🎯 Set input. Pick filters and maxItems.
4. 🚀 Run it. Click Start.
5. 📥 Download. Grab results in the Dataset tab as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

⏱️ Total time from signup to dataset: 3-5 minutes. No coding required.

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💼 Business use cases

📰 Space Journalism Pre-launch context articles Year-in-review summaries Anniversary retrospectives Mission-specific deep dives	🎓 Education + Museum Interactive launch timelines Rocket-evolution exhibits Classroom astronomy content Reproducible launch datasets
📱 Fan Apps Launch-countdown apps Mission-tracker dashboards Patch-collection apps Watchlist + notification bots	🤖 ML + Research Train launch-success classifiers Build orbit-mechanics features Power space-news dashboards Cross-train with NASA / ESA data

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🔌 Automating SpaceX Launches and Rockets Scraper

Control the scraper programmatically:

• 🟢 Node.js. Install the apify-client NPM package.
• 🐍 Python. Use the apify-client PyPI package.
• 📚 See the Apify API documentation for full details.

The Apify Schedules feature lets you trigger this Actor on any cron interval.

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🌟 Beyond business use cases

Data like this powers more than commercial workflows.

🎓 Research and academia Aerospace economics research Launch-cadence analysis Reproducible space snapshots Course materials	🎨 Personal and creative Personal launch dashboards Side projects on space Newsletter content Hobbyist data
🤝 Non-profit and civic Space-education outreach Open data contributions Civic-tech projects Heritage preservation	🧪 Experimentation Train classification models Prototype launch-aware agents Build mission-tracker apps Test space-data viz libraries

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🤖 Ask an AI assistant about this scraper

Open a ready-to-send prompt in the AI of your choice:

• 💬 ChatGPT
• 🧠 Claude
• 🔍 Perplexity
• 🅒 Copilot

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

🧩 How does it work?

Pick an endpoint (launches, rockets, capsules, cores, launchpads, landpads, payloads, or ships) and optional filters. The Actor calls the SpaceX-API and emits records.

📊 How many fields per record?

Up to 35 for launches. Other endpoints return correspondingly different schemas.

🪧 Are mission patches high-res?

Yes. The Actor returns the largest patch image URL when available, falling back to small.

🎬 Does it include webcast video?

Yes. webcastUrl returns the YouTube live-stream link when one is published.

✅ How is success determined?

Pass-through from SpaceX-API. The success field is true for primary mission objectives met.

🔁 Can I schedule runs?

Yes. Schedule weekly to keep an external launch tracker fresh, or daily during launch-heavy periods.

⚖️ Is this data free?

Yes. SpaceX-API is community-maintained under MIT license. Only public mission metadata is collected.

💳 Do I need a paid Apify plan?

No. The free plan covers preview runs.

🆘 What if a run fails?

Apify retries transient errors. Partial datasets are preserved.

🚀 Does it include Starship?

Yes. Starship-related launches and the Starship vehicle appear in launches and rockets endpoints.

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🔌 Integrate with any app

SpaceX Launches and Rockets Scraper connects to any cloud service via Apify integrations:

• Make - Automate multi-step workflows
• Zapier - Connect with 5,000+ apps
• Slack - Get run notifications
• Airbyte - Pipe data into your warehouse
• GitHub - Trigger runs from commits
• Google Drive - Export datasets to Sheets

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💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection for more reference-data scrapers.

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🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form to request a new scraper, propose a custom data project, or report an issue.

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⚠️ Disclaimer: this Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), the SpaceX-API project, or any subsidiary. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Only publicly available open data is collected.