Seems like Starlink API is outdated

[anna-hos]

Hi all! I have tried using this request https://api.spacexdata.com/v4/starlink and latest launch date is 2022-10-28, however Space Track has more fresh data on other satellites. Could someone check this, please?

[frankcholula]

looks like it. This should be the latest data

As of 20 July 2023:[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Starlink_and_Starshield_launches#cite_note-JM-stats-3)

Satellites launched: 4837
Satellites failed or deorbited: 372
Satellites in orbit: 4497
Satellites working: 4465
Satellites operational: 3741

but I'm only getting 3526 total (included the decayed ones)

Update
Yep, just confirmed with the spacetrack API, v4 is outdated.
e.g. This is 57246 launched on 2023-07-07 and it's not stored in the backend MongoDB.

from spacetrack import SpaceTrackClient
import json

username = "YOUR_USERNAME"
password = "YOUR_PASSWORD"

st = SpaceTrackClient(identity=username, password=password)
norad_ids = [57246]
starlink_tle_data = st.tle_latest(
    norad_cat_id=norad_ids, orderby="epoch desc", limit=1, format="json"
)
starlink_tle_data = json.loads(starlink_tle_data)
for data in starlink_tle_data:
    print(data)

here's the response

{
    "ORDINAL": "1",
    "COMMENT": "GENERATED VIA SPACETRACK.ORG API",
    "ORIGINATOR": "18 SPCS",
    "NORAD_CAT_ID": "57246",
    "OBJECT_NAME": "STARLINK-5049",
    "OBJECT_TYPE": "PAYLOAD",
    "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
    "INTLDES": "23094AE",
    "EPOCH": "2023-07-21 04:00:00",
    "EPOCH_MICROSECONDS": "999936",
    "MEAN_MOTION": "15.78912491",
    "ECCENTRICITY": "0.000143",
    "INCLINATION": "42.9935",
    "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": "236.5235",
    "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": "270.1818",
    "MEAN_ANOMALY": "119.7865",
    "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": "0",
    "ELEMENT_SET_NO": "999",
    "REV_AT_EPOCH": "231",
    "BSTAR": "-0.0058808",
    "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": "-0.00960194",
    "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": "0",
    "FILE": "3962978",
    "TLE_LINE0": "0 STARLINK-5049",
    "TLE_LINE1": "1 57246U 23094AE  23202.16667824 -.00960194  00000-0 -58808-2 0  9993",
    "TLE_LINE2": "2 57246  42.9935 236.5235 0001430 270.1818 119.7865 15.78912491  2319",
    "OBJECT_ID": "2023-094AE",
    "OBJECT_NUMBER": "57246",
    "SEMIMAJOR_AXIS": "6711.658",
    "PERIOD": "91.202",
    "APOGEE": "334.482",
    "PERIGEE": "332.563",
    "DECAYED": "0"
}

and from the dataset

[pieteradejong]

I've had similar issues. Two thoughts:

• recommend always when possible using /latest route, e.g. /latest/launches. The api seems to be setup like that consistently.
• I've wondered how the data is being sustainably kept up to date, without requiring manual maintenance. Perhaps such functionality can be added, e.g. a db_update script? Apparently there are potentially relevant sources available such as spacetrack .