1 · At a Glance
AstraVeris operates on a deliberately narrow set of upstream feeds. The majority are public-domain or Creative Commons; a minority are account-gated ToU feeds where we are explicitly licensed to produce derivatives but not redistribute raw payloads. The headline number: nine upstream sources, no ITAR-controlled inputs, and a fully documented chain of attribution for every derivative we publish.
2 · Licensing Matrix
Per-source legal posture. This is the table we hand to a prospect’s procurement office when they ask “what data do you use and are you allowed to use it?” The Redistribute? column refers exclusively to raw-payload redistribution — derivative analytics (reliability scores, SAI inputs, decay forecasts) are permitted under every source below, with attribution where required.
| Source | License | What we use it for | Redistribute? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CelesTrak GP catalog / TLEs |
PL 108-136 | Backbone for decay forecasting, constellation census, orbital-regime modules, SAI inputs. | ✗derivatives OK | Derived from US-government-furnished data; raw ephemerides cannot be redistributed. Credit CelesTrak / 18th SDS on methodology page. |
| GCAT McDowell’s General Catalog |
CC-BY 4.0 | Historical launch + catalog backfill beyond LL2 coverage; operator attribution on legacy missions. | ✓with attribution | Cleanest upstream license we have. Credit “Jonathan McDowell / GCAT” on any page that surfaces this data. |
| USASpending.gov | CC0 / Public Domain | Federal grant & contract award tracking; gov_grants table; concentration analytics. |
✓fully | Fully redistributable. Used for grant-award and government-contract enrichment. |
| Space-Track.org 18th SDS |
Account + ToU | Orbital confirmation of payload insertion; decay notices used in backtest. | ✗derivatives only | Account-required. ToU forbids commercial redistribution of raw ephemerides. Derived analytics OK; re-confirm with 18 SDS directly for any contract >$50K/yr. |
| Launch Library 2 LL2 / thespacedevs |
CC-BY-SA 4.0 | Primary structured feed for upcoming launches, historical launches, controlled reentries. | ✓share-alike | Copyleft. For paid tiers we either restrict LL2 to free/public pages or re-derive equivalent fields from primary sources so the share-alike chain doesn’t propagate. |
| SEC EDGAR | Public Domain | 10-K / 10-Q / 8-K filings, XBRL facts, Debt Maturity Wall extraction, operator financial enrichment. | ✓fully | US-government work. Fully redistributable. |
| NextSpaceflight | Scraped / no license | Launch manifest enrichment (mission name, pad, payload manifest). | ✗narrow derivatives | No explicit license — fair-use derivative aggregation. Respect robots.txt, rate-limit scrapers, do not reproduce full mission-detail pages verbatim. |
| UCS Satellite Database Union of Concerned Scientists |
CC BY-SA 3.0 | Active-satellite inventory with operator, purpose, orbit class. | ✓share-alike | Same share-alike concern as LL2. Credit “Union of Concerned Scientists.” |
| FAA AST | Public Domain | Launch license data, approved operators, spaceport licensing, reentry license enrichment. | ✓fully | US-government work. Fully redistributable. |
3 · What AstraVeris Does with Each Source
AstraVeris does not resell upstream data. Every number a customer sees is a computed derivative — a score, an aggregate, a forecast, a concentration metric — produced by our pipeline from one or more upstream feeds. This is why derivative publication is legal even for sources whose raw payloads carry redistribution restrictions: the analytical artifact is a new work.
Orbital catalogs (CelesTrak, Space-Track). Raw TLE and OMM records enter the pipeline, are filtered and de-duplicated, and drive three classes of derivative: decay forecasts per object using SGP4 propagation against historical ballistic-coefficient estimates; constellation-level population counts feeding SAI factor active_satellites; and operator-level orbital-regime exposure for risk analytics. No raw ephemeris is exposed to customers.
Historical catalogs (GCAT, UCS Satellite Database). Historical launch records and active-satellite rosters are joined to our internal company and vehicle registries to produce reliability curves, operator concentration metrics (HHI), and fleet composition breakdowns. Raw rows are not redistributed verbatim; where a customer needs a raw-row equivalent, we re-derive the relevant field from primary sources (SEC filings, direct operator disclosures) to avoid propagating the CC-BY-SA share-alike chain into a paid tier.
Launch manifests (Launch Library 2, NextSpaceflight, FAA AST). Structured and semi-structured launch-manifest data drives the live launch tracker, countdown widgets, and the Launch Recap section of the newsletter. LL2 records feed public pages where the CC-BY-SA share-alike is honored; paid-tier analytics that reference the same events are re-derived from FAA AST public-domain filings and operator press releases so the paid product carries no share-alike encumbrance.
Federal spending (USASpending.gov). Raw award records are fully public-domain and are exposed in summary form on the Grants dashboard. The derivative layer adds: agency concentration, recipient concentration, award-type trends, and SBIR/STTR Phase-I-through-III funnel analysis. Both the raw aggregation and the derivative analytics are freely redistributable.
Corporate filings (SEC EDGAR). 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K filings are fully public-domain. AstraVeris runs local LLM extraction (Gemma 4 via Ollama) over long-form disclosures to populate the Debt Maturity Wall, cash-and-runway fields, and debt-schedule analytics. The extraction artifacts are original works; the underlying filings remain redistributable.
See methodology for per-factor sourcing →4 · ITAR / Export Control Posture
AstraVeris ingests only public-source data: commercial and government catalogs that are themselves publicly licensed or published (CelesTrak, GCAT, USASpending, SEC EDGAR, FAA AST, UCS DB, LL2, and account-gated but non-CUI feeds such as Space-Track.org). AstraVeris does not handle, process, or redistribute Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), classified information, or any technical data covered by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR, 22 CFR 120–130). The product produces analytical derivatives — reliability scores, financial indices, concentration metrics, decay forecasts — that are informational in nature and do not constitute “defense articles” or “defense services” under the ITAR. On that basis, AstraVeris self-classifies its commercial product as EAR99 under the Export Administration Regulations (15 CFR 730–774).
This classification changes if AstraVeris enters any of the following: (a) any contract or agreement under which a US Government customer identifies data we receive as CUI; (b) any teaming or subcontract role in which a prime contractor designates AstraVeris-handled data as CUI or controlled technical data; (c) any direct ingest of classified feeds or ITAR-controlled technical data. In any of those cases, AstraVeris will at minimum pursue CMMC Level 2 assessment, register with DDTC if ITAR exposure is present, and re-issue this memo with an updated classification. Until such trigger, AstraVeris operates, sells, and exports its commercial product under EAR99 with no license required for export to non-embargoed destinations.
Memo date: 2026-04-23 · Product: AstraVeris space-finance intelligence platform (website, newsletter, data subscription).
5 · AstraVeris Customer License Terms
AstraVeris output (scores, indices, analytical derivatives, company profiles, newsletter content, API responses, and downloadable exports) is licensed to customers for internal analytical use. Customers may aggregate, benchmark, and incorporate AstraVeris-derived values into their own internal risk models, portfolio reports, underwriting decks, and procurement reviews without additional permission. Verbatim republication of full AstraVeris company profiles, factor rationales, newsletter editorial, or scored datasets on public websites, marketing materials, or third-party products is not permitted without a separate written agreement; brief excerpts with clear attribution (“per AstraVeris” or “AstraVeris Risk Index”) are welcomed and encouraged. Customers may not use AstraVeris data to train a competing analytics product or to populate a competing public tracker. If you’re unsure whether a specific use is covered, the contact below is the fastest path to a clear answer.
6 · Contact for Data-Rights Questions
Procurement offices, export-control reviewers, and partner legal teams can reach the AstraVeris founder directly. We keep a paper trail of every data-rights inquiry and typically respond within one business day.
Subject line “Data rights inquiry” routes the message to the correct queue.
7 · Changelog
v1.0 — 2026-04-23 — initial publication. Nine-source licensing matrix, EAR99 self-classification memo, customer license terms.