diff --git a/CHANGELOG-unreleased.md b/CHANGELOG-unreleased.md
index 6b1f098c4..4b0c6d105 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG-unreleased.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG-unreleased.md
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ the released changes.
 ## Unreleased
 ### Changed
 - Moved `get_derived_params` to `timing_model`
+- `check_ephemeris_connection` CI test no longer requires access to static NANOGrav site
 ### Added
 - Added numdifftools to setup.cfg to match requirements.txt
 - Documentation: Added `convert_parfile` to list of command-line tools in RTD
diff --git a/check_ephemeris_connection.py b/check_ephemeris_connection.py
index 205afb724..333b01c29 100644
--- a/check_ephemeris_connection.py
+++ b/check_ephemeris_connection.py
@@ -1,9 +1,6 @@
-import urllib.request
 import pint.solar_system_ephemerides
 
 
-urllib.request.urlopen("https://data.nanograv.org/static/data/ephem/de405.bsp").read()
-
 for e in [
     "de440",
     "de405",