Encyclopedia Astronautica is one of the oldest and largest spaceflight references on the web. It holds more than 79,000 pages and 13,000 images on the rockets, spacecraft, engines and launch sites of every space program, and the people who flew and built them.
How it started
The encyclopedia was founded by Mark Wade in 1994. Over the following decades he built it into a record of spaceflight unlike anything else online, with unusual depth on Soviet and Russian programs and on projects that were planned but never flew.
Researchers, journalists and historians came to rely on it. In 2015, founder Mark Wade received the American Astronautical Society's Ordway Award in the website category for his work on Encyclopedia Astronautica, and National Geographic reported being directed here by NASA's own history office.
A new chapter
In 2026, astronautix.com came under new ownership. Mark Wade is not involved in running the site today, and we are grateful for the work he did to build it.
Our aim is simple. We want to keep the encyclopedia available to everyone, and to tell the story of space and astronomy to a wider audience.
What stays the same
- The encyclopedia remains free to read, with its original entries and their original credits kept online.
- The space history chronology runs through 2018. We keep it as a historical record and do not present it as up to date.
- When we make a substantive factual correction to an archive entry, we record what changed and when.
What's new
Alongside the encyclopedia, we now publish new articles regularly in four sections:
- Exploration: rockets, spacecraft, missions and the people who flew them.
- Solar System: the Sun, the Moon, the planets and everything orbiting with them.
- Deep Space: stars, galaxies, black holes, exoplanets and the wider universe.
- Sky & Earth: eclipses, meteors, the night sky, and our planet seen from space.
We have also redesigned the site so the encyclopedia is easier to search and browse on any device.
How we work
Every new article is written by a named member of our team and lists its sources. You can read how we research, write and correct our work in our editorial policy.
Get in touch
Found an error, or have a question about the site? Email us at [email protected]. Corrections can also be reported through our contact page.