User:WDGraham/Spaceflight notability

Wikipedia's general notability guideline states that if a topic has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject, it is presumed to be suitable for a stand-alone article or list. This essay sets out the interpretation of this guideline as typically applied to spaceflight-related articles, giving guidance on the usual practices and de facto standards used in this area of the project.

Individual spacecraft

Spaceflight remains a topic which generates a large amount of news. The launch of almost every new satellite is covered, to varying extents, by numerous news sources both mainstream and specialist. Award of contract, development and the launch campaign, problems with the spacecraft in orbit should they occur, changes in operations, scientific results (if applicable) and the spacecraft's eventual end of life can also attract significant coverage. Many smaller, cheaper satellites are engaged in pushing the boundaries of science and engineering, while application-based satellites, such as those for navigation, reconnaissance and communications, represent multi-million (or even billion) dollar engineering projects. Regardless of the commonality of design, operation and mission, each spaceflight is, to a large extent, unique.

Because of this, individual orbital spaceflights are generally considered to be inherently notable and each should have its own article. This includes spacecraft launched as secondary or tertiary payloads on another's launch and subsatellites deployed from other spacecraft.

An exception to this is made where insufficient reliably-sourced information about the spacecraft is available to produce even a basic stub, in which case information about the spacecraft should be provided in articles about its launch, programme and/or the master list of spaceflights from that year (see Timeline of spaceflight). Therefore the availability of reliable third-party sources should be the primary method of determining what is and isn't notable.

Spacecraft articles should cover both the spacecraft itself and the mission it conducted. In the event a spacecraft conducted multiple missions as separate flights then each mission should have its own article, with a central one for the spacecraft. If spacecraft conducted multiple missions during a single spaceflight a central spacecraft article should cover the vehicle and its flight, with details on the missions included either in the spacecraft's article as sections, in separate articles with a summary included in the central article, or a combination of the two. The method chosen should depend on the notability of the individual missions and the availability of reliably-sourced information.

Suborbital spaceflight is less extensively covered by the media, and due to the short nature of such missions it is often difficult to produce sufficient articles. Individual suborbital spaceflights are one-off events, rather than ongoing missions like satellites. As such they are typically considered less notable and details are included in an article about the programme which the missions were conducted under. Some suborbital missions are sufficiently notable to warrant articles; this is usually assessed on a case-by-case basis. Under almost all circumstances a series of multiple repeated suborbital flights - for example as part of a scientific investigation or vehicle test programme, should be covered by a single article about the programme. Exceptions warranting individual articles are likely to include test flights for manned space programmes, especially in the early days of spaceflight, particularly significant experiments and non-routine manned suborbital space travel.

Debris objects

Objects which have never been, nor were intended to be, anything but debris - such as byproducts from the launch or objects incidentally separated from the functional payloads - for example spent rocket stages, fragments, deployment mechanisms and despin masses—are typically not considered notable and therefore would not generally be reflected in a separate Wikipedia article. They should be included as part of a list in the article on the launch which placed them into orbit, and mentioned in the body of the spacecraft article or launch article from which they originated should they warrant explanation or discussion. This applies to debris from both rockets and spacecraft.

Individual launches

Rocket launches are typically the culmination of a long campaign of activity, with the rockets in almost all cases being multi-million dollar pieces of hardware. Launches are the most visible element of a spaceflight, and hence often the area which achieves the most mainstream coverage. Almost all orbital launches are covered by the mainstream media in their respective countries and specialist media internationally, while a large majority attract mainstream international coverage.

While it is easy to see a launch as a one-time event, there is typically a long launch campaign leading up to it—which often are notable in the context of the launch however trivial they may be to the missions of the spacecraft launched—for example launch delays, scrubs and holds. The rocket's flight does not end with payload separation either; on most flights one or more of the launch vehicle's upper stages will enter orbit along with the payload—becoming a derelict satellite—and this can remain in space for years. Other objects such as adaptors, can also remain in orbit as debris. These objects would often not warrant articles individually due to a lack of available information, however a central launch article would provide a logical place to cover larger elements of launch-related space debris, at least those elements large enough to be tracked and published in any of the several satellite tracking public databases.

Therefore, orbital launches are generally considered sufficiently notable to warrant their own articles provided that such articles do not detract from Wikipedia's coverage of the satellites launched.