Sources and Method

Where the data comes from, how it is matched, and what to be careful about

Industry / Sources and method

Sources

Open data, credited

SourceWhat we use it forLicence
Spaceflight News API News headlines from about 40 publications Metadata only; articles remain the property of their publishers
Jonathan McDowell's General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects (GCAT) Every launch since 1942, organisations, launch sites and the satellite catalogue with owners and manufacturers CC-BY-4.0
CelesTrak SATCAT Daily list of every tracked object in orbit Public data; see celestrak.org terms
The Space Devs - Launch Library 2 Agencies, rocket and spacecraft details, recent launches See thespacedevs.com terms; attribute The Space Devs

News RSS feeds: SpaceNews, NASA, Spaceflight Now, Space.com, Payload, Ars Technica, NASASpaceflight, SpacePolicyOnline.com, European Spaceflight, Universe Today. We keep headlines, a short teaser and the link, never full articles.

Method

How records are matched

The same organisation appears in several sources under different names, so the directory merges records only on strong evidence: the same Wikipedia page, the same website domain, or the same normalised name in a compatible country. Divisions and sites (for example a company's test site) stay separate entries linked to their parent, and a subsidiary is never absorbed into its owner. Weaker matches, such as a shared abbreviation, are queued for review and not merged.

Launches are counted once, from GCAT, and cross-checked against Launch Library 2: over 99% of Launch Library 2's launches have a matching GCAT record, and 99% of matched launches agree on the outcome. Satellites are matched between GCAT and CelesTrak by catalogue number.

Labels

What the checks mean

  • Cross-checked across sources: two or more independent sources describe the same organisation. This is an automatic check, not a person's review.
  • Single source: only one source has this organisation, so it could not be checked against another.
  • Sources disagree: the sources give different countries or founding years; we show the difference and do not pick a winner silently.
Limits

Known limits

  • Launches are credited to the country of the launch site. Baikonur is in Kazakhstan, so it counts there although Russia operates it.
  • Satellites of the former Soviet Union and satellites with several owner countries are not credited to a single modern country.
  • The directory is strongest for launch providers, agencies and satellite operators. Component suppliers and very new companies may be missing.
  • News links are matched by name and can mention a company without being about it.
  • Founding years differ between sources for many organisations; GCAT often dates a facility, not the company.

Last full refresh: 14 minutes ago. Found a mistake? Tell us.

Launch and satellite data: Jonathan McDowell's GCAT (CC BY 4.0) and CelesTrak. Rockets, spacecraft and agencies: Launch Library 2 by The Space Devs and Wikidata. News headlines link to their publishers via the Spaceflight News API and RSS feeds. Records come from several sources and are matched automatically, so treat the directory as a research aid, not an authority. How the data is built and checked.