Infrastructure
Launch
2014 – Orbital Launch Reports and Forecasts
The table below shows each spacefaring nation’s space launch vehicle platforms active in the current year. Launch tracking and launch system information relies on various primary and government sources. The current year’s launch reliability shows the number of successful launches over the number of total launches for the year.
2014 – Orbital Human Space Launch
It is relatively simple to place a satellite into orbit when compared with launching humans to space. Humans have more complex needs, such as breathable air, food, staying warm, staying cool, and protection from the space environment. Humans must also be able to return safely to Earth from their trip to space. Over the years, a variety of spacecraft were specifically designed to fulfill these requirements. Rockets, originally designed to return to selected points of the Earth quickly and destructively, began to incorporate changes for human needs and requirements as well. Two nations, the United States and Russia, pioneered the development of space systems to launch humans into space more than half a century ago.
2013 – Brazilian Spaceports
In 2003, Brazil made an agreement with the government of Ukraine to bring a modernized version of the Soviet-era Cyclone rocket to its Alcântara Launch Center. This would couple the proven reliability of the Ukrainian launch vehicle with the advantageous equatorial location of Alcântara to offer highly competitive prices to commercial clients.
2013 – Chinese Spaceports
China’s new spaceport is the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, located on the southern Chinese island of Hainan. Building the spaceport on the island offers two advantages over China’s current spaceports. As it is located on the coast, China can transport rocket stages to the site via ship and eliminate the size restrictions imposed by the need to pass through railway tunnels and bridges.
2013 – Russian Spaceports
Baikonur Cosmodrome was Russia’s first spaceport, beginning operations in 1957. It is also the largest spaceport in the world in terms of area, and it is the world’s busiest spaceport in terms of number of orbital launches. It is located in what is now the independent country of Kazakhstan, which until 1991 was a Soviet republic.
2013 – U.S. Spaceports
Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) occupy neighboring sites in the state of Florida, and are responsible for the bulk of U.S. launch activity. KSC is the only U.S. spaceport that currently supports crewed orbital spaceflight and historically has been the launch site for almost every crewed U.S. spaceflight. With the end of the Space Shuttle program, KSC and CCAFS were left with an impressive assortment of NASA infrastructure that was now in search of a purpose.
2013 – Spaceports Overview
Spaceports are the facilities where launch vehicles and their payloads are prepared and subsequently launched. Spaceports vary widely in scale. They range from the relatively austere Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska, which typically conducts only one launch every year or two from its one pad, to a sprawling facility such as Baikonur, which covers thousands of square kilometers and conducts about one-third of all global launches per year, lifting off from more operational launch pads than are found in any other spaceport.
2013 – Suborbital Payload Launch
One of the pioneers of commercial suborbital flights, Armadillo Aerospace, announced that it was suspending operations in early August 2013 due to funding issues. Founded by noted video game designer John Carmack, Armadillo Aerospace steadily developed and tested a series of ever-improving vertical take-off, reusable rocket-powered vehicles.
2013 – U.S. Suborbital
Several crewed, reusable suborbital vehicles have been under development during the past decade. These vehicles are being designed and built by commercial companies to carry paying passengers to the edge of space, enabling them to experience microgravity for minutes at a time. When operational, these vehicles will provide the most affordable access to space for passengers. Although ticket prices of $## to $## are certainly not within most people’s personal budgets, they represent a drastic discount from the $## to $## million paid by the most recent private visitors to the ISS.
2013 – Other Countries, Launch, Payload
South Korea conducted ## successful orbital launch in 2013. After suffering two previous launch failures of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV)-1, arguments arose between the Russian manufacturers of the vehicle’s first stage and the South Korean manufacturers of the second stage over the responsibility for the vehicle’s failures.