Spacex-api: What's the best way to get a specific launch?

[philipengberg]

I can't seem to find documentation for or working endpoints that returns a specific launch. The only way I seem to be able to replicate this is by querying a specific flight number:

https://api.spacexdata.com/v2/launches?flight_number=50

However, this obviously returns an array instead of a single object, which is slightly annoying 😄

Would it make sense to follow the principle of most other endpoint by having a detail endpoint like

https://api.spacexdata.com/v2/launches/{flight_number or some sort of ID}

[jakewmeyer]

v3 endpoint supports this

https://api.spacexdata.com/v3/launches/65

v3 is coming in a few weeks. Still getting tests and documentation taken care of

[philipengberg]

Awesome!

And just to completely understand your versioning approach: Since /v3 is already available now, do you then just recommend not using it in production until it's done?

[philipengberg]

And also, most endpoints that reference specific missions - like /ships or /parts/cores - only reference them by name:

"missions": [
    "Iridium NEXT 7",
    "SAOCOM 1A"
]

So what is the best way to load the corresponding launch from that?

[jakewmeyer]

Most of the endpoints are unlikely to change, but until it's officially released, I would wait on using it in production, just in case we decide to make last minute changes.

If you want a peek at the v3 documentation, it's located here

[philipengberg]

OMG, Postman docs 😍

[philipengberg]

But what about my second question? 🙂

[jakewmeyer]

My feeling exactly ❤️

[jakewmeyer]

As far as the second question goes

Currently we can get launches with a mission name like:
https://api.spacexdata.com/v3/launches?mission_name=TESS

One option is changing the v3 endpoint to accept a mission name param instead of flight number:
https://api.spacexdata.com/v3/launches/TESS

[philipengberg]

The name is just not guaranteed to be unique 😕What if all the endpoints that return references to missions return a list of objects like

"missions": [
    {
        "name": "Iridium NEXT 7",
        "flight": 55
    },
    {
        "name": "SAOCOM 1A",
        "flight": 45
    }
]

Then a client can still show the name as preview and then use the ID to get the full thing.

[jakewmeyer]

Sounds good to me 👍

[jakewmeyer]

Capsules, Cores, and Ships have all been updated with this style 👍

[philipengberg]

You blow my mind every single day 😄