China
2014 – IRNSS
India continued with plans for its regional PNT constellation, the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS), launching ## more IRNSS satellites in 2014. With a total of ## PNT satellites in geosynchronous orbit, India is nearly halfway toward completing its ##-satellite IRNSS constellation. Even with ## IRNSS satellites, the Indians will continue to rely on GPS for their GPS-Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system, which became operational in 2014.
2014 – GLONASS
Russia launched ## GLONASS satellites in 2014, maintaining a constellation of ## operational satellites. Russia also faced some challenges with GLONASS during 2014. On April 1, GLONASS satellites transmitted messages that reported the satellites’ positions with an error of around 200 kilometers (124 miles). The problem was resolved after about 11 hours, and although the outage did not seem to have major negative impacts on businesses relying on PNT services, some organizations are learning from the problems GLONASS faced and are moving toward systems using more than one PNT constellation.
2014 – China Space Stations
Observers noted that China’s Tiangong-1, the only other space station besides the ISS currently in orbit, remained in place in 2014. China was expected to de-orbit Tiangong-1 two years after it launched in September 2011. No crews were launched to the uninhabited module during 2014.
2014 – China Launch, Payload
China’s 2014 rate of ## launch attempts surpassed its 2013 total by ##. China’s launch vehicle family of choice was the Long March, and all ## of China’s launches were successful as they deployed a variety of military and civil spacecraft. One of China’s newest launch vehicles was previously expected to undertake its first flight in 2014.
2014 – Annual Launch Activity Overview
Launch vehicles vary in size, configuration, and capability. One primary distinction lies in the capability of a launcher to insert an object in an orbital or suborbital trajectory. Suborbital vehicles carry their payloads outside of Earth’s atmosphere, but they do not accelerate to the velocit… Thank you for visiting The Space Report! The Authoritative Guide…
2014 – Spaceports Overview
Space launch vehicles and their payloads are prepared and subsequently launched or deployed from facilities called spaceports. The scale of spaceports varies widely, whether measuring the area they cover or the activities they host.
2014 – Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Systems
The military and commercial value of positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems has gained such prominence that PNT systems are often considered to be critical infrastructure. The proliferation of smartphones and other consumer devices that rely on PNT services has spread this dependence… Thank you for visiting The Space Report! The Authoritative Guide to Global…
2014 – Annual Space Stations Overview
While satellites are essentially a platform upon which useful equipment can be mounted, space stations are a fundamentally different kind of asset. Space stations have been envisioned as permanent or semi-permanent bases where astronauts could take advantage of the microgravity and vacuum conditions to research new manufacturing techniques. In addition, space stations were foreseen as rest, refueling, and assembly points for vessels heading beyond Earth’s orbit.
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.
2014 – Chinese Government Space Budget
The structure and organization of the Chinese space program is not transparent. This makes it difficult to obtain credible data on the Chinese national space enterprise, including budget and organization. Officially, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) sets overall guidance and policy for the entire space program. However, the CNSA is not the executing agency for China’s space program, nor do many China watchers believe that it sets top-level policy direction, acting instead more as a central contact point for non-Chinese entities interested in China’s official space efforts. Space activities in the country are executed…