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For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt.
Deleting a spacecraft is permanent and terminal. There is no undo. The spacecraft’s data is destroyed and cannot be recovered — not by you, and not by VALAR support. Archiving is the reversible action; deletion is not. Delete a spacecraft only when you are certain it should cease to exist — for example, to clean up a duplicate craft created by mistake. Route: /spacecraft → Danger Zone

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Before you can delete: archive first

A spacecraft must be archived before Delete becomes available. On an active spacecraft the Delete action is shown but disabled, with a note that the craft must be archived first. This is deliberate: it puts a reversible step (archiving, which you can undo with Restore) in front of an irreversible one. Archive the spacecraft from the Danger Zone first; then return to delete it.

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Who can delete

Deletion requires an authority that is granted separately from the authority to edit a spacecraft — being able to change a craft’s configuration does not let you delete it. If you do not see a Delete action in the Danger Zone of an archived spacecraft, you do not hold that authority. Deletion is an interactive, signed-in action only. It is not available to API keys or automated integrations — a spacecraft can only be deleted by a person, from the app.

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The impact check: what you are consenting to

Before you confirm, the deletion dialog shows you how many records of each kind of data will be destroyed with the spacecraft — its measurements, orbit solutions, residuals, state vectors, maneuvers, and every other kind of record attached to it — with a total. Those counts are exactly what you are consenting to destroy: what the dialog lists is what dies with the craft. If the spacecraft has no attached data — the ordinary case for a duplicate created by mistake — the dialog tells you so, and only the spacecraft record itself is removed. That is a normal outcome, not a warning.

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Confirming: type the spacecraft’s ID

To confirm, you type the spacecraft’s ID — not its name. The dialog shows you the ID to type. The ID is used rather than the name because two spacecraft can share a name but never share an ID. Cleaning up a duplicate — two craft with the same name — is the exact case this feature exists for, and the name would confirm nothing. The Delete button stays disabled until what you type matches the spacecraft’s ID exactly.

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What happens, and what survives

Deletion is synchronous: it happens the moment you confirm, not on a background queue. When it completes, the spacecraft is gone from every list and selector, and you are returned to the spacecraft overview. The only thing that survives is an internal audit record VALAR keeps: who deleted the spacecraft, when, and how many records of each kind were destroyed. This is a record that the deletion happened — it is not a copy of the data, and it cannot restore anything.

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Where deletion works

Deletion behaves identically in Operations and in Mission Analysis. Deleting acts only on the spacecraft in the environment you are currently working in.