2016
2016 – Military Satellites – Snapshot
Military satellites—spacecraft acquired, launched, and operated by a nation’s military forces—share many of the same mission types used in commercial and civilian applications. Communications, remote sensing, positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) missions can seem remarkably similar to civilian … Thank you for visiting The Space Report! The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity, Packed with…
2016 – Satellite Orbits – Snapshot
As in previous years, the most used orbit type is low Earth orbit (LEO). In 2016, 80% of the 219 spacecraft launched or deployed around the Earth were inserted into LEO. The effective range of this type of . . .
2016 – Annual Infrastructure – Snapshot
Launching people and satellites into orbit, providing directions to tourists, and warning residents on the Pacific Rim of an impending hurricane…all of these activities require infrastructure, the spine of an industry. A bigger space infrastructure can support more activity, such as the number of orbital launches conducted annually. A flexible infrastructure can rapidly adapt to growth or unexpected changes, such as the increased demand for launch services.
2016 – Space Insurance – Snapshot
Space insurance premiums in 2016 amounted to $## million, their ## level since 2001. The year’s claims, including both launch failures and incidents involving satellites in…
2016 – Russian Spaceports – Snapshot
## are the ## operational orbital launch spaceports within Russian territory. However, the busiest Russian orbital launch spaceport continued to be…
2016 – Sounding Rockets – Snapshot
Government sounding rocket programs, such as NASA’s Sounding Rockets Program Office (SRPO), use sounding rockets as training tools for future engineers and scientists. More launch opportunities…
2016 – Suborbital Payload Launch – Snapshot
In May 2016, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched a Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD)…
2016 – Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Systems – Snapshot
As the world’s population continued integrating space positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) technologies and services, the number of PNT satellites continued to multiply in 2016, growing slightly more than ##% from 2015. Relative newcomers to PNT space operations, such as Europe, India, and China, grew their PNT constellations, each building an independent…
2016 – Communications Satellites – Snapshot
The launch of Telstar 1 in July 1962 brought a novel way to communicate between continents and people. Despite changes in technology since then, the type of communications associated with Telstar 1, the television broadcast, is very much the kind of…
2016 – Satellite Overview – Snapshot
Traditional satellite missions, such as Earth observation, communications, and positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT), continued dominating the global space industry, but other missions are coming forward. Air traffic control and ship traffic monitoring satellites are increasing as more governments and organizations recognize the usefulness of these missions. Radio occultation using…