Getting Started

Welcome to Mission Space API documentation.

Overview

Mission Space provides a REST API for space weather observations, derived indices, event catalogs, and atmospheric model calculations. Typical data includes:

• Kp index (3-hour geomagnetic index)
• Solar wind and magnetic field (DSCOVR L1)
• GOES proton and X-ray fluxes
• POES high-latitude satellite measurements
• Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) event listings
• Models: JB2008 and NRLMSIS (MSIS)

Many endpoints return high-volume time series and support pagination, filtering, and satellite-level selection where relevant.

Base URL

https://api.mission.space/api/v1

Authentication

All API requests (except /health) require an API key. Two methods are supported — prefer headers for security:

Python (header, recommended):

Code
 
import requests

resp = requests.get(
    "https://api.mission.space/api/v1/solar-wind",
    params={"start_time": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z", "end_time": "2025-01-01T01:00:00Z"},
    headers={"X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
)
resp.raise_for_status()
print(resp.json())

Python (query parameter alternative):

Code
 
import requests

resp = requests.get(
    "https://api.mission.space/api/v1/solar-wind",
    params={"start_time": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z", "end_time": "2025-01-01T01:00:00Z", "api_key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
)
resp.raise_for_status()
print(resp.json())

Rate limits

• Default: 200 requests per minute per API key.
• Response headers include X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, and X-RateLimit-Reset (Unix timestamp).

Handle 429 Too Many Requests by reading X-RateLimit-Reset and backing off; see the Rate Limits guide for examples.

Pagination and time ranges

Most endpoints support pagination using limit and offset.

• limit: 1–10000 records per page (default 1000).
• offset: integer offset to skip records (default 0).
• Time windows must be ISO 8601 and are limited to a maximum span of 365 days per request.

Detect more pages by checking the number of records returned: when fewer records than limit are returned, you've reached the end.

Important endpoint notes

• Some endpoints multiply returned records by the number of active satellites if you don't filter by satellite (for example GOES and POES datasets).
• Several measurement endpoints return results in reverse chronological order (newest first); account for this when paging.

Common fields & units

• Kp index: unitless (0–9, half steps)
• Magnetic field components: nanoTesla (nT)
• Solar wind speed: km/s
• Density: particles/cm³
• Temperature: Kelvin
• Proton flux: particles/(cm²·s·sr)

Models

Use POST endpoints to run model calculations:

• /models/jb2008 — JB2008 atmospheric density predictions. Provide timestamp, latitude, longitude, and altitude_km in the JSON body.
• /models/msis — NRLMSIS model for temperature and density profiles. Optional f107 and ap inputs are accepted.

Requesting an API key

Request access at /request-access.

Response format

Most responses follow this structure:

Code
 
{
  "status": "success",
  "data": [...],
  "meta": {
    "total": 1000,
    "returned": 100,
    "limit": 1000,
    "offset": 0
  }
}

Time format

All timestamps use ISO 8601 in UTC, for example 2025-01-16T18:44:40.000Z.

Next steps

• Browse the API Reference to explore endpoints.
• See the Guides for quickstart, authentication, pagination, rate limits, and examples.
• Use the Endpoint Examples guide for ready-to-run Python snippets.