Infrastructure
Launch
Rivals Launch Military Satellites Amid U.S.-led Space Defense Drills
A flurry of military and intelligence satellite launches by rival powers this month came as the United States and two dozen partner nations wrapped up the largest global space defense wargame in history.
Russia launched what some leaders have described as a spy satellite for Iran and its own on-orbit snooping satellite Cosmos-2558, which is circling Earth in an orbit conspicuously close to a recently launched U.S. National Reconnaissance Office satellite, a Netherlands researcher confirmed.
Aug. 4 Sets Record for Most Launches in One Day
The beginning of August saw a flurry of launch activity as Aug. 4 set a record for most orbital launches on a single day (based on UTC launch times). The final launch count for the day reached five – three American and two Chinese.
ESA Sending Heroic, Fictional Sheep Aboard Artemis I
NASA says its Artemis I flight set to launch as soon as late August will be an uncrewed lunar fly-by.
The Paris-based European Space Agency would beg to differ. Shaun is leaving the happy confines of Mossy Bottom Farm to lead the flight around the Moon, an agency press release announced.
Spacecraft Mission Segment Shares by Nation
2021 analysis shows how strongly communications spacecraft deployments continued to dominate payload launches.
2021 TSR Q1: 2020 in Launches: Successes, Failures, and Everything in Between
This was the year of the partial success. From the LauncherOne demo to the maiden flight of the KZ-11, 2020 saw explosions and anomalies around the world. Companies such as… 2019 TSRQ4 – Infrastructure: Spaceports
Spaceport upgrades and new spaceport development are at an all-time high, with 40 active launch sites around the globe, 10 more in development in the United States, Sweden, Australia and Canada, and 13 more proposed in eight countries. . .
2019 TSRQ2 – Infrastructure: Orbital Launch Vehicle Overview
Introduction |Throughout 2018, nations, multinational organizations, industry, and academia launched payloads and experiments into orbit and on suborbital flights. Six nations, including the European Space Agency (ESA), continued, and in… 2018 – Infrastructure: Space Infrastructure
Space infrastructure, like its terrestrial counterpart, is an invisible backbone for services used by people all over the world. Like terrestrial infrastructure, space infrastructure is increasingly relied upon for convenience, services, and . . .
2017 – Orbital Human Space Launch
During 2017, Russia was the only nation that launched humans into orbit. Russia continued providing its service, ferrying passengers to the International Space Station (ISS). Of the…
2017 – Suborbital Payload Launch
Suborbital launch activity continued throughout 2017. For many nations and a few organizations, suborbital launches are an excellent and relatively inexpensive way to gain…