China
2014 – Top-level Trends
In education, the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress exams show that U.S. fourth- and eighth-grade students are showing improvement in mathematics, though less than half achieve at or above the level deemed proficient. According to the most recent international examinations, the United States remains in the middle of the pack among major space nations with regard to mathematics performance, with Japan and South Korea leading
Infrastructure: Space Infrastructure – TSR 2014
Perspective – TSR 2014
Economy: Space Economy – TSR 2014
2013 – Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Systems
Note: The exhibit in this section is from The Space Report 2014. Please refer to this year’s exhibits for the most current data as numbers may have been revised since this edition was published.
2013 – Government Space Budgets Overview
Government space programs accounted for approximately $## billion in spending during 2013, representing ##% of the global space economy. Government investment in space decreased by ##% in 2013, contributing to a cumulative average annual growth rate of ##% between 2009 and 2013. The top-line figures, however, do not fully depict how some countries have significantly increased space spending while others have made cuts, as shown in Exhibit 2n. Because not all governments operate under the same fiscal cycle, international space spending numbers were derived from the most recent budgetary information available for each country. The figures reported in the following country profiles are presented in both the local currency and U.S. dollars as of June 30 of the appropriate year.
2013 – Landers/Rovers
In addition to astrophysics missions, several planetary exploration missions proceeded throughout 2013. These missions all focused on investigating other orbital bodies in the Solar System, whether through orbiting satellites or robotic landers.
2013 – Military Communications
Dedicated and secure communications links are vital to defense agencies around the world. Increasing demand for capacity—particularly secure connectivity using non-commercial frequency bands—has driven the deployment of dedicated military communications satellites. The U.S. military buys a significant portion of its capacity from commercial operators such as Intelsat and SES. However, the United States also relies on military-specific systems such as the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) program, supplying dedicated communications to U.S. and allied military forces around the globe.
2013 – Military Reconnaissance
Military-specific observation satellites can be used for reconnaissance or other intelligence-gathering purposes. The capabilities of remote sensing satellites can sometimes obscure whether or not they are being used for civilian or military applications.
2013 – Meteorology
Weather satellites are a major segment of remote sensing satellites. Most weather satellites are in GEO or polar LEO orbits and have traditionally been operated by national governments for near-term weather forecasting. However, austere government budgets have caused weather-focused agencies to struggle to sustain existing programs under reduced funding. Maintaining existing programs with old, albeit reliable, data acquisition capabilities potentially inhibits the development and introduction of new, higher quality instrumentation that could increase accuracy.