This is an essay on style. It contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more WikiProjects on how to format and present article content within their area of interest.
All article titles should follow official Wikipedia policies, which can be found at Wikipedia:Article titles. In many cases the absence of specific guidelines for spaceflight articles have led to inconsistency in the naming of articles within this project's scope. This advice page describes the interpretation of this policy by members of WikiProject Spaceflight to ensure consistency in spaceflight-related article titles.
When article titles requires disambiguation, we prefer to use "(spacecraft)" or "(satellite)". For example, instead of "Rosetta (space mission)", or "Rosetta (space probe)", we prefer to use Rosetta (spacecraft). Instead of "Helios probes", we prefer Helios (spacecraft).
"(spacecraft)" for all crewed and cargo spacecraft, for vehicles not designed to operate in geocentric orbit or in independent flight.
"(satellite)" should be used for uncrewed spacecraft operating independently in geocentric orbit, which do not meet the above criteria.
We often include the name of the manufacturer or developer in the article title, as it is used by reliable sources (e.g. Boeing Starliner, SpaceX Starship).
Some spacecraft have different names to refer to them before and after launch (for example, Japanese satellites are typically known by an acronym before launch, and a more abstract name afterwards: eg. PLANET-C became Akatsuki after launch). The most recent name should be used where possible, unless there is a consensus to do otherwise.
Titles should not include more than one name, even if it is only for the purpose of disambiguation.
In the rare cases where an article for a single launch is justified, such articles should be titled using the name of the carrier rocket and either the flight number of the launch, or the serial number of the rocket used. If the these numbers are not known the format "[Month] [Year] [Rocket] launch failure" may be used instead. For example:
