2022
Born from NASA space innovation, Digital Twin technology blooms across industries
Digital twinning is a technology with roots in the space program that’s now the beating heart of modern business, solving production, supply chain, and delivery problems before they start and giving managers unprecedented insight into operations.
Annual Payload Deployment Climbs 36%, Driven Largely by Broadband Growth
Fueled largely by the growth of broadband constellations and the continued dominance of U.S. payloads, spacecraft deployed in 2022 climbed significantly from 2021.
Defense Spending Increase Targets Commercial and Military Satellite Protection
Defense space initiatives received an additional $2.2 billion in appropriations on top of the initial request for fiscal year 2023 alongside a first-of-its-kind shift in stated strategy.
SNAPSHOT: Lunar Missions
The first attempted lunar mission was the Soviet Union’s Luna 1 impactor, which launched Jan. 2, 1959, and passed within only 5,995 kilometers of the Moon at its closest point. The Space Race brought a large wave of lunar activity in the 1960s, but there have only been a few missions in the decades since.
ISS Damage Triggers Apparent Détente Between United States, Russian Federation
Trouble on the International Space Station (ISS) may have thawed relations between Russia and the United States. The two nations overcame tensions in January for a Moscow summit on resolving problems aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to bring home astronauts who were scheduled to fly aboard the capsule damaged by a micrometeorite.
Orbital Launch Attempts by Result, 2013-2022
For the second consecutive year, space launches set all-time records as operators sent a historic number of 179 successful missions into orbit in 2022. With 41 more attempts than 2021, the year also set a new record for the sheer volume increase of launches year over year.
Orbital Launch Activity Grows at Record Pace in 2022
Space launch activity continued to grow rapidly in 2022, reaching a new high of 186 orbital launch attempts. Last year was filled with successes and had three fewer failures than 2021, even with 41 more attempts.
Launch Attempts of New, Select U.S. Launch Companies, 2013-2022
But startups increasingly have brought a new wave of innovation to the market. Of the five recent U.S. companies launching new vehicles, SpaceX has moved from innovator to market leader. Rocket Lab, which attempted launch for the first time in 2017, made headway toward reusability by twice attempting to recover the rocket’s first stage using a helicopter in 2022. Firefly completed its first successful flight last year, and Virgin Orbit and Astra succeeded in 2021.
Pressure Ramps Up for New Vehicle Launches Pushed from 2022 to 2023
The list of launch vehicles set for maiden flights in 2023 may sound familiar. It’s mostly the same group of launch vehicles initially slated to fly in 2022.
As New Solar Cycle Heats Up, Multiple Missions Explore Sun’s Mysteries
The Sun lies at the center of our solar system and sets the cycle of our daily lives, yet so much remains unknown about how it functions. As the Sun enters into a years-long phase of increasing solar eruptions, its increased activity poses risks to thousands of Earth- and space-based infrastructure assets. The increased solar activity comes as probes from NASA, ESA, and China are gathering the most advanced data ever collected about Earth’s star