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This working group is responsible for the creation and maintenance of lists and timelines related to spaceflight, particularly the article timeline of spaceflight and related pages.
Page naming should follow the format [Year] in spaceflight, replacing "[year]" with the year that the list is documenting. (eg. 2026 in spaceflight)
In order to facilitate consistency throughout the timeline, the D MMMM (day-month) long date format should be used within articles, for example 28 October. British English should be used throughout, with the exceptions of place names and organisations within the United States, or another English-speaking country, where the name differs, for example, the United States Department of Defense, or the Kennedy Space Center. All times should be in UTC. Within tables, commonly repeated terms such as "Space Centre" should be dropped, and if possible, word wrapping should be avoided.
The next thing on the page should be a summary of events that took place that year, including space exploration, human spaceflights, and launch failures. This should be illustrated where possible with free-use images. Remember that this section will appear to the left of the infobox, so unless the lead section is sufficiently long as to pass the bottom of the infobox, all images should be aligned to the left. There should also be a brief definition of the term "spaceflight", such as "The internationally accepted definition of a spaceflight is any flight which crosses the Kármán line, 100 kilometres above sea level.", early on in the lead.
The last two lines of the lead section should be:
{{TOC limit|2}}
{{clear}}
Which prevent display issues that can be caused by either the table of contents growing too big, or the infobox protruding into the launches section.
The first section of the article should be entitled "Launches". It should contain a comprehensive list of all rocket launches that crossed, or are/were intended to cross the Kármán line in the year which that article documents. If the number of launches are exceeding the WP:PEIS and the sections are collapsing into a single article (see WP:AS), affecting the readability and navigability of the article, the list of launches can be split in the following ways:
No split required
0
The number of launches does not impact readability or navigation, so a split is unnecessary; all launches for the year can be listed on the main page. Usually around 100 launches Example: 2020 in spaceflight, but in some cases like 2018 in spaceflight, the main article may be long enough to cause a list of 100 launches to collapse the article, in such cases, the article can be split in two or more as mentioned below.
Two articles
1
The article exceeds WP:AS or the list is long enough for it to be split in to two half-yearly articles: January to June and July to December. Example: 2024 in spaceflight article's H1 and H2.
Three articles
2
Two articles may not suffice with list of launches being long enough for a three article split: January to April, May to August and September to December. Example: 1960 in spaceflight article's T1, T2 and T3.
Four articles
3
Two or three articles may not suffice with the launches requiring to be split in to four seasonal articles: January to March, April to June, July to September and October to December. Example: 1964 in spaceflight article's Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4.
4
A standalone article can also be created for suborbital launches along with the four seasonal orbital launches. Possibly required for 2026 and beyond.
Twelve monthly articles
5
Seasonal articles may no longer suffice in the near future, thus the list can be split into twelve monthly articles. No requirement as of 2025.
Notable spaceflights only
6
Spaceflight becomes common enough in future for it to list only notable flights such as scientific missions in the main article. No requirement as of 2025.
Broad overview
7
Spaceflight becomes extremely common, close to airlines in the far future where it does not make sense to list all the launches as it goes against WP:NOTDATABASE. The major events in spaceflight can be listed in the main article like [Year] in science articles. No requirement as of 2025.
This list should be formatted using a series of templates. First of all, the navigation template, {{tl:TLS-M}}, should be transcluded. The first parameter of this template should be the year (eg: {{TLS-M|2026}} for 2026). This should be followed on the next line by the table header, {{TLS-H2}}, which should also be transcluded, but requires no parameters.
A new subsection should be started for each month, using a level three header. A colspan of 8 should be set to avoid breaking the table. For example:
|colspan="8"|
=== January ===
|-
Individual launches are listed using the templates {{TLS-RL}} and {{TLS-PL}}:
{{TLS-RL|NoPL=<!--number of payloads defined (MUST be the same as number of {{TLS-PL}} templates used below)-->|date =<!--launch date (GMT)-->|time =<!--launch time (GMT)-->|rocket =<!--type of rocket used-->|flight =<!--flight number-->|site =<!--launch site and pad-->|LSP =<!--launch service provider-->|remarks =<!--notes, anything else that is not covered-->|empty =<!--creates indent, could be used for general Reference, preferred empty-->|payload ={{TLS-PL <!--add one of these templates for each payload-->|name =<!--payload name-->|cubesat =<!--"yes" if this is a CubeSat, "p" if this is a PocketQube, empty for larger satellites-->|user =<!--payload operator-->|orbit =<!--orbit regime or "suborbital"-->|function =<!--function of the spacecraft/mission-->|d-date =<!--decay date, omit if still in orbit or not yet launched-->|d-time =<!--decay time, omit if still in orbit or not yet launched-->|outcome =<!--outcome (successful, failed, partial failure, ongoing, etc), leave blank before launch-->|d-span =<!--see below-->|o-span =<!--see below-->}}<!--there should be NO LINEBREAK if a further {{TLS-PL}} template is added-->}}
The d-span and o-span parameters can be used to apply the same decay date and outcome to different payloads on the same rocket. If a number is entered, then that field will be applied to that many consecutive payloads (including the one for which it is specified). If it is set to "inherit" then it will inherit from the cell above. If it is not set to "inherit" but a span is specified above, then it will cause a syntax error. The d-span parameter should only be used where the payloads will be attached during re-entry/landing, and o-span should only be used in the event of a total launch failure.
Flags should be inserted, using the {{flagicon}} template, to show the nationalities of the rocket, launch site, LSP and spacecraft.
All items that require it should be linked on the first occurrence. The link should encompass the full name. In the case of rockets, the configuration should not be linked unless there is no space between it and the rocket name (eg [[Ariane 5|Ariane 5ECA]] not [[Ariane 5]]ECA, and [[Delta II]] 7925 not [[Delta II|Delta II 7925]]), and that the configuration is not necessary to identify the type of rocket (eg [[Delta 2000|Delta 2913]] not [[Delta 2000|Delta]] 2913). Rocket names which contain version numbers rather than configuration numbers should be linked in full (eg [[Saturn V]] not [[Saturn V|Saturn]] V). Missiles should use their full designation when being launched as missiles, but the common name if conducting an orbital or civilian launch. (eg. SM-65B Atlas B for missile tests, Atlas B for launching SCORE).
At the end of the launches section, close the table using
|}
Then insert another instance of {{TLS-M}}, the same as above.
The Deep Space Rendezvous section should immediately follow the launches section. It should contain a table listing of all encounters between spacecraft and astronomical objects, such as planets, in the year. Note that the spelling "rendezvous" should be used, not "rendez-vous". The same table format should be used in all articles:
Deep Space Rendezvous sections should only occur in articles where they are required. There should be no Deep Space Rendezvous section in articles prior to 1959, or in the 1960, 1984, 1987 or 1988 articles.
The EVAs section should follow the Deep Space Rendezvous section if present, or otherwise the table of launches. It should list all spacewalks and moonwalks conducted during that year. It should only be present in years where EVAs occurred. There should be no EVAs section for years prior to 1965, or for 1967, 1968, 1970, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1981 or 1989, or for any year which has not yet occurred. The same template format should be used for all EVA sections:
The suborbital and orbital launch summary should follow the EVAs section where present, otherwise the Deep Space Rendezvous or Launches section, depending on the article. It provides statistical information on the numbers and types of orbital launches conducted during that year. For the purpose of statistics, catalogued suborbital launches are also included in this section. This section should be included in all articles from 1957 onwards. It should be split into three level three subsections:
By country
This subsection gives statistics for orbital launches by country. It starts with a pie chart, which was earlier generated using the template {{TLS-PC}}, before switching to the standard pie chart template used across Wikipedia.
Note that former Soviet republics (eg. Ukraine) should be listed as "Russia/CIS".
The section should be followed with a clearing linebreak to prevent the pie chart overlapping into the next subsection
{{clear}}
By rocket
This subsection gives statistics for individual rockets. It consists of one table:
This subsection gives statistics for different orbital regimes. Unlike the rest of the article, in this section a "success" is a launch which reached the planned orbit, and a "failure" is one which did not. For more details, see Outcomes. The section contains one table, and should list the following trajectories in the following order:
This section should list all the inaugural flights and their outcomes within a table, arranged according to dates. Add references for each in the column for same. First successful orbital flights can also be listed if the rocket had a failure the previous time.
The see also section should follow the orbital launch summary if present, or otherwise the table of launches. It should contain links to the appropriate page of the list of human spaceflights (if the article is for 1961 or later), an article providing more details of suborbital flights in that year (Suborbital spaceflight in [year]), and the main Timeline of spaceflight. Other relevant links which are not covered elsewhere in the article may also be included here.
The references section, which should follow the See also section, should start with the generic references, which are inserted by transcluding {{TLS-R}}. This should be followed by a level three subsection entitled "Footnotes", containing a {{Reflist}} template.
A standard set of criteria are used to determine the outcome of missions, to ensure consistency within the articles.
A mission is considered successful if
The mission is complete, and
All objectives have been accomplished
A mission is considered a failure if
No primary objectives are met, or
There is an LOC or LOCV scenario on a crewed flight, or
The rocket fails to orbit (does not apply to sub-orbital launches), or
The spacecraft is placed inexorably in a useless orbit, or
The spacecraft fails to contact the ground after separation, or
The spacecraft malfunctions and cannot be recovered with a significant portion of its mission remaining
A mission is considered a partial failure if
Some primary mission objectives are met, but some are not, or
The spacecraft malfunctions and cannot be recovered, but has completed a significant portion of its mission, or
The spacecraft operates, or is predicted to operate for less than its design life, or
The carrier rocket places the payload into an incorrect orbit, but
The spacecraft can still operate in the incorrect orbit, or
The spacecraft can correct its own orbit
A distinction should be made between launch failures and spacecraft failures. Note that spacecraft-induced launch failures should be considered launch failures and not spacecraft failures, however a note to this effect should be placed in the remarks field. No operational spacecraft should be listed as an outright failure.
The entries in the outcome field should be one or more of the following:
Operational
Successful
Unknown
Launch failure
Spacecraft failure
Partial launch failure
Partial spacecraft failure
The {{nowrap}} template should be placed around the longest entry to prevent wrapping. The field should be left blank for spacecraft awaiting launch.
This list, by Jonathan McDowell has a complete list of all orbital spaceflights up to early 2006. We just need to format it for Wikipedia, and add sub-orbital and more up-to-date flights.
Anyone can help out or use the resources here whether a member or not but if you would like to join us, you can indicate participation by adding your name to our active members list. Also, if you like, you could add a userbox to your user page:
