Science and space
NASA, earthquakes, rocket launches and space news
Science and space APIs give you NASA images and data, real-time earthquakes from around the world and the current position of the International Space Station, rocket launches and spaceflight news. Use them for education, maps and dashboards; the data is public and most of these APIs need no key.
Launch Library 2
Launch Library 2 from The Space Devs is a database of rocket launches and space events: upcoming and past launches with their rockets, launch sites, missions, webcasts and status, plus astronauts, space stations and spacecraft. ...
NASA APIs
api.nasa.gov is the portal to a collection of NASA APIs: the Astronomy Picture of the Day, photos from the Mars rovers, near-Earth asteroids, space weather events, Earth imagery from the EPIC camera, and more. Responses are JSON. ...
Spaceflight News API
The Spaceflight News API collects space and spaceflight news from dozens of news sites and blogs. Get articles, blog posts and reports, searchable and filterable by date and site, and linked to launches and events where possible. ...
USGS Earthquake API
The US Geological Survey publishes real-time and historical earthquake data for the whole world. Query earthquakes by time, location, radius, depth and magnitude, or count them first, and get the results as GeoJSON, CSV, KML or ...
Where the ISS at?
Where the ISS at? tells you where the International Space Station is right now: latitude, longitude, altitude, speed and whether it is in daylight. You can also ask for positions at past or future timestamps and get the two-line ...
Compare the science and space APIs
| Service | API key | Formats | Free use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch Library 2 | Not needed | JSON | Free without a key with a low hourly request limit; supporters get higher limits. |
| NASA APIs | Needed, free | JSON | Free; the shared DEMO_KEY works for trying things out, and a free personal key gives much higher limits. |
| Spaceflight News API | Not needed | JSON | Free and open source, no key needed. |
| USGS Earthquake API | Not needed | JSON | Free, public domain data, no key needed. |
| Where the ISS at? | Not needed | JSON | Free, no key needed, with a limit of about one request per second. |
Questions
Which free science and space APIs work without an API key?
Launch Library 2, Spaceflight News API, USGS Earthquake API and Where the ISS at? work without a key, according to their documentation. Most keyless services ask you to keep the number of requests reasonable, and some ask for a User-Agent that names your app.
Are these science and space APIs really free?
The services here can be used without paying, at least on a free plan or free tier, often with limits such as a number of requests per day or non-commercial use only. The table above quotes what each service says about its free use; check the provider's own terms before you rely on it.
How up to date is this list?
The address of every service is checked about once a week, and services that stop working or stop being free are removed. This list last changed on November 8th, 2026.