Open Notify - People in Space

api.open-notify.org · Science

Science No Auth Free & Open Space ISS Facts

Get the names and spacecraft of all astronauts currently in space. Simple, single-purpose API. Free, no authentication.

Authentication

No authentication requiredFree to use with no key needed.

Sample Requests

GET People in space

Returns the number of people in space and their names.

http://api.open-notify.org/astros.json

Hover any highlighted part to learn what it does

curl -X GET "http://api.open-notify.org/astros.json"

import requests
response = requests.get(
    "http://api.open-notify.org/astros.json",
)
print(response.json())

const url = 'http://api.open-notify.org/astros.json';

const response = await fetch(url); 
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	targetURL := "http://api.open-notify.org/astros.json"
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", targetURL, nil)

	client := &http.Client{}
	resp, _ := client.Do(req)
	defer resp.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(body))
}

require "net/http"
require "json"

uri = URI("http://api.open-notify.org/astros.json")

http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == "https"

req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)

res = http.request(req)
puts JSON.parse(res.body)

<?php
$url = "http://api.open-notify.org/astros.json";
$opts = ["http" => [
    "method" => "GET",
]];
$ctx = stream_context_create($opts);
$res = file_get_contents($url, false, $ctx);
print_r(json_decode($res, true));

Postman Setup Guide

Get Postman ↗

No API key needed
GET http://api.open-notify.org/astros.json
Returns: {"number": N, "people": [{"name":"...", "craft":"..."}, ...]}
ISS location: GET http://api.open-notify.org/iss-now.json

What can you build with Open Notify - People in Space?

Open Notify - People in Space is a Science API. Developers commonly use science APIs for:

accessing research datasets and scientific literature
powering academic and R&D applications
running scientific calculations and simulations
visualising experimental and observational data
integrating with research and reference databases

No authentication required. This API is open — no signup or key needed. Ideal for quick prototypes and public-facing features. Open Notify - People in Space is free to use, making it a low-risk choice to experiment with.

New to APIs? Read our beginner's guide

Open documentation ↗