Chronicling America vs Spaceflight News

Same instrument, two spec sheets — measured, not claimed.

Uptime · 30d
Uptime · 90d—%—%
Uptime · 30d—%—%
P50 · ms
P95 · ms
Authnonenone
CORSnoyes
HTTPSyesyes
Card requirednono
Commercial useyesunclear
Data licensePublic domain / no known copyright (Library of Congress)Unverified (links/metadata for third-party news)
Free tierFree — public-domain collection dataFree — no key
Rate limitLoC throttles heavy crawling (see LoC API policy)Unpublished
In directory since2026-07-052026-07-05
operationalpartialdownno data

Chronicling America vs Spaceflight News: common questions

Which is more reliable, Chronicling America or Spaceflight News?

On our scheduled checks, Spaceflight News leads on measured uptime — Chronicling America at —% versus Spaceflight News at —% over 90 days. These are our own probe results, not provider claims; the uptime bars above show the day-by-day record for both.

Do Chronicling America and Spaceflight News need an API key?

Neither needs a paid key — Chronicling America is callable with no signup, and Spaceflight News is callable with no signup. Both are quick to prototype with; rate limits still apply.

Can I call Chronicling America and Spaceflight News from the browser?

Only Spaceflight News is browser-friendly — it returns CORS headers over HTTPS. Chronicling America needs a server-side call or proxy, so factor that into which one fits a front-end project.

Are Chronicling America and Spaceflight News free for commercial use?

Chronicling America allows commercial use on its free tier, and Spaceflight News has unclear commercial terms. We track service terms and the data license as separate fields — see the Commercial use and Data license rows above, and confirm both before shipping either in a paid product.