README.md

---
license: cc0-1.0
pretty_name: "Space Missions Database"
language:
  - en
description: >-
  Comprehensive database of space missions sourced from Wikidata.
  25,137 missions covering crewed and uncrewed spaceflight from the dawn
  of the Space Age to the present.
size_categories:
  - 10K<n<100K
task_categories:
  - tabular-classification
tags:
  - space
  - missions
  - spaceflight
  - wikidata
  - open-data
  - tabular-data
  - parquet
configs:
  - config_name: default
    default: true
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/space-missions.parquet
---

# Space Missions Database

*Part of the [Orbital Mechanics Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/orbital-mechanics-datasets-69c24caca4ab3934c9856994) collection on Hugging Face.*

Comprehensive database of **25,137** space missions — both crewed and uncrewed — sourced from [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/).

## Dataset description

This dataset draws on Wikidata's structured knowledge base using three entity types: space missions (Q2133344), crewed spaceflights (Q1248784), and uncrewed spaceflights (Q12795915). It is maintained by the WikiProject Spaceflight community and updated as new missions are flown and documented.

> **Note:** Wikidata coverage is uneven — most entries have only a name and Wikidata ID.
> Columns with <5% data coverage are automatically dropped during pipeline processing.

## Schema

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `wikidata_id` | string | Wikidata entity ID (e.g. Q183294) |
| `name` | string | Mission name |
| `operator` | string | Operating agency or organization (~13% coverage) |

Additional columns (launch_date, destination, etc.) appear when Wikidata coverage exceeds 5%.

## Quick stats

- **25,137** total missions in the database
- Top operators: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (202), Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (149), Airports Authority of India (109), Soviet space program (93), Roscosmos State Corporation (85)

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/space-missions", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Missions by operator
if "operator" in df.columns:
    print(df["operator"].value_counts().head(10))

# List all missions
print(df[["name", "wikidata_id"]].head(20))
```

## Data source

[Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/) SPARQL endpoint. Missions identified via:
- Q2133344 (space mission, including subclasses)
- Q1248784 (crewed spaceflight)
- Q12795915 (uncrewed spaceflight)

Data is community-curated by [WikiProject Spaceflight](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Spaceflight).

## Update schedule

Quarterly (January, April, July, October).

## Related datasets

- [astronaut-database](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/astronaut-database) -- Every person who has traveled to space
- [launch-log](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/launch-log) -- McDowell orbital launch log
- [spacecraft-database](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/spacecraft-database) -- Spacecraft catalog
- [deep-space-probes](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/deep-space-probes) -- Deep space probe trajectories

## Pipeline

Source code: [juliensimon/space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets)

## Support

If you find this dataset useful, please give it a ❤️ on the [dataset page](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/space-missions) and share feedback in the Community tab! Also consider giving a ⭐️ to the [space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets) repo.

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{space_missions,
  author = {Simon, Julien},
  title = {Space Missions Database},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/space-missions},
  note = {Sourced from Wikidata (CC0)}
}
```

## License

[CC0-1.0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) (Wikidata content is public domain)