Spacex-api: Starlink-9 needs is_tentative/net to be true

[CodyDSmith]

For V3, tentative_max_precision is currently "month", but is_tentative is false. This means the API is giving an exact date for Starlink-9 of midnight on July 10, which was over 11 days ago.

For V4, date_precision is currently "month", but net is false. I assume "net" is the V4 replacement of is_tentative? I don't see another way to determine when the date becomes exact and date_precision should be ignored.

[CodyDSmith]

I see that "is_tentative" has been changed to true on V3 for Starlink-9. For V4, "net" is still false which confuses me, but I see that "tbd" is now true for V3 and V4.

Some documentation on how to properly interpret and combine "net", "tbd", "date_precision", and "date_utc" for V4 would be greatly appreciated.

[jakewmeyer]

See this section in the v4 docs

For example, the launch manifest has the Starlink 9 date set as 2020 TBA.

If the date contains TBD or TBA, tbd is set as true
If the date contains NET, net is set as true

NET isn't used often, but it's there for the rare cases

[CodyDSmith]

I've read that section. I meant more of a logic flow. For example, according to the docs, "date_precision" doesn't get more detailed than "hour" so what value should we check to know when to start ignoring "date_precision" and accept the minutes and seconds of "date_utc"? If "net" is false and "tbd" is false then ignore "date_precision" because the date is exact? This was easy in V3 because it had "is_tentative".

[jakewmeyer]

NET or TBD could be set for any date precision potentially, so I wouldn't use them to determine how much of the date is valid. Technically every upcoming launch could be considered TBD or NET, these are just to give a bit more context if needed.

So far, I've never seen a time posted without minutes, so we never bothered adding a level below hour. Even if this doesn't include minutes or seconds, this is more than precise enough for a future launch.

[CodyDSmith]

Oh OK, if "date_precision" is "hour" then it is safe to use the entire date, including minutes and seconds. "hour" is full precision. A blurb in the docs about that might be a good idea. Thanks for the help!

[jakewmeyer]

I'll add a note 👍