SpaceX API

The SpaceX API is an open-source REST API that exposes data about SpaceX launches, rockets, cores, capsules, crew, Dragon spacecraft, launchpads, landing pads, payloads, ships, Starlink satellites, company information, and historical events. Nexla connects to the SpaceX API to ingest this data into your data flows for analysis, reporting, and integration.

Power end-to-end data operations for your SpaceX API API with Nexla. Our bi-directional SpaceX API connector is purpose-built for SpaceX API, making it simple to ingest data, sync it across systems, and deliver it anywhere — all with no coding required. Nexla turns API-sourced data into ready-to-use, reusable data products and makes it easy to send data to SpaceX API or any other destination. With comprehensive monitoring, lineage tracking, and access controls, Nexla keeps your SpaceX API workflows fast, secure, and fully governed.

Features

Type: API

SourceDestination

• Seamless API Integration: Connect to any endpoint as source or destination without coding, with automatic data product creation
• Visual Composition & Chaining: Build complex integrations using visual templates, chain API calls, and compose workflows with data validation and filtering
• API Proxy: Expose curated slices of your data securely with a secure and customizable API proxy that validates and transforms data on the fly
• Request optimization with intelligent batching, retry, and caching to minimize API calls and costs

Prerequisites

The SpaceX API is a public, open-source REST API served from the base URL https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/. Its read (GET) endpoints are openly accessible and do not require an account or API key to retrieve data.

To configure a credential in Nexla, you provide an API key value that is sent in the Authorization header as a bearer token. Because the public SpaceX API endpoints are unauthenticated, you can enter any placeholder value in this field if you do not have a key. If you are connecting to a deployment of the API that has been secured with a token, enter that token instead.

For details on the available data and endpoints, refer to the SpaceX-API project on GitHub.

Authenticate

Credentials required

Field	Required	Secret	Description
API Key	Yes	Yes	API key for SpaceX API.

Create a credential in Nexla

1. After selecting the data source type, click the Add Credential tile to open the Add New Credential overlay.

2. Enter a name for the credential in the Credential Name field and a short, meaningful description in the Credential Description field.

3. Enter your API key in the API Key field. This value is sent in the Authorization header as a bearer token when Nexla connects to the SpaceX API. Because the public SpaceX API endpoints do not require authentication, you may enter a placeholder value if you do not have a key.

4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the overlay. The newly added credential will now appear in a tile on the Authenticate screen during data source creation.

Use as a data source

To create a new data flow, navigate to the Integrate section, and click the New Data Flow button. Select the SpaceX API connector tile, then select the credential that will be used to connect to the SpaceX API, and click Next; or, create a new SpaceX API credential for use in this flow.

Endpoint templates

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure data sources to ingest data from common SpaceX API endpoints. Select the endpoint from which this source will fetch data from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Available endpoint templates are listed in the expandable boxes below.

[Rest API] List Launches

Retrieve launches from SpaceX API.

• This endpoint template fetches launch records from the https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/launches endpoint. Nexla organizes the returned records into one or more Nexsets.

[Rest API] List Capsules

Retrieve capsules from SpaceX API.

• This endpoint template fetches capsule records from the https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/capsules endpoint. Nexla organizes the returned records into one or more Nexsets.

[Rest API] List Company

Retrieve company from SpaceX API.

• This endpoint template fetches company information from the https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/company endpoint. Nexla organizes the returned records into one or more Nexsets.

[Rest API] List Crew

Retrieve crew from SpaceX API.

• This endpoint template fetches crew records from the https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/crew endpoint. Nexla organizes the returned records into one or more Nexsets.

[Rest API] List Cores

Retrieve cores from SpaceX API.

• This endpoint template fetches core records from the https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/cores endpoint. Nexla organizes the returned records into one or more Nexsets.

[Rest API] List Dragons

Retrieve dragons from SpaceX API.

• This endpoint template fetches Dragon spacecraft records from the https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/dragons endpoint. Nexla organizes the returned records into one or more Nexsets.

[Rest API] List Landpads

Retrieve landpads from SpaceX API.

• This endpoint template fetches landing pad records from the https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/landpads endpoint. Nexla organizes the returned records into one or more Nexsets.

[Rest API] List Payloads

Retrieve payloads from SpaceX API.

• This endpoint template fetches payload records from the https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/payloads endpoint. Nexla organizes the returned records into one or more Nexsets.

[Rest API] List History

Retrieve history from SpaceX API.

• This endpoint template fetches historical event records from the https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/history endpoint. Nexla organizes the returned records into one or more Nexsets.

[Rest API] List Rockets

Retrieve rockets from SpaceX API.

• This endpoint template fetches rocket records from the https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/rockets endpoint. Nexla organizes the returned records into one or more Nexsets.

[Rest API] List Roadster

Retrieve roadster from SpaceX API.

• This endpoint template fetches Roadster information from the https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/roadster endpoint. Nexla organizes the returned records into one or more Nexsets.

[Rest API] List Ships

Retrieve ships from SpaceX API.

• This endpoint template fetches ship records from the https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/ships endpoint. Nexla organizes the returned records into one or more Nexsets.

[Rest API] List Starlink

Retrieve starlink from SpaceX API.

• This endpoint template fetches Starlink satellite records from the https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/starlink endpoint. Nexla organizes the returned records into one or more Nexsets.

Once the selected endpoint template has been configured, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu to retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched. Sample data will be displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right, allowing you to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

Manual configuration

SpaceX API data sources can also be manually configured to ingest data from any valid SpaceX API endpoint, including endpoints not covered by the pre-built templates, chained API calls, or custom request parameters. Select the Advanced tab at the top of the configuration screen, and follow the instructions in Connect to Any API to configure the API method, endpoint URL, date/time and lookup macros, path to data, metadata, and request headers.

Once all of the relevant settings have been configured, click the Create button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the new SpaceX API data source. Nexla will now begin ingesting data from the configured endpoint and will organize any data that it finds into one or more Nexsets.