2022
Solving Space Junk Problem Could Net Federal Prize
A grand prize could be in the offing for inventors who come up with new methods to prevent orbiting debris or design tools that can clean up space junk, according to recommendations from the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Aug. 4 Sets Record for Most Launches in One Day
The beginning of August saw a flurry of launch activity as Aug. 4 set a record for most orbital launches on a single day (based on UTC launch times). The final launch count for the day reached five – three American and two Chinese.
Non-NASA U.S. Civil Space Spending by Agency, 2020-2022
Civil government spending in the U.S. increased 3%. The Department of the Interior’s space budget was held flat in 2021, while the Department of Commerce and the National Science Foundation only increased spending by 1% and 0.3%, respectively. The Department of Transportation, which has the smallest share of U.S. civil space spending, had its budget slashed by 21% in 2021.
Launches by Nation Jan. 1 to June 30, 2022
American firms led the world for launches in the first half of 2022 with 39, including 27 launches from SpaceX.
Payload Launches by Mission Type, Jan.-June, 2022
In terms of payloads, the impact of commercial firms is far more striking. Of 1,022 spacecraft sent to orbit in the first half of the year, 958 were backed by commercial firms, accounting for nearly 94 percent of all spacecraft sent to orbit so far in 2022, up four percentage points from records set in 2021, Space Foundation research shows.
Launches by Mission Type, Jan.-June 2022
Including five launches that carried mixed payloads, commercial firms backed 36 missions to space in the first half of 2022, civil governments backed 26 and militaries footed the bill for 15, Space Foundation research shows. In all of 2021, itself a record year, commercial firms backed 56 launches.
Launches in First Six Months of the Year, 1957-2022
From Jan. 1 to June 30, the first six months of 2022 saw 75 orbital launch attempts worldwide with 72 successful launches. The launch number was matched only in 1967 and the number of successes broke records.
ESA Sending Heroic, Fictional Sheep Aboard Artemis I
NASA says its Artemis I flight set to launch as soon as late August will be an uncrewed lunar fly-by. The Paris-based European Space Agency would beg to differ. Shaun is leaving the happy confines of Mossy Bottom Farm to lead the flight around the Moon, an agency press release announced.
Global Space Activity by Category, 2005-2021
For this year’s analysis, Space Foundation incorporated historical data and 2022 government spending to project the global space economy’s growth over the next five years. Using our methodology, we predict that the total could reach $639 billion by 2026. Our modeling takes a more conservative approach based on average growth of established sectors and does not factor in developing sectors such as lunar habitation or still exploratory concepts such as asteroid mining.
S-Network Space Index vs. Benchmark Indexes, 1H, 2022
In the first half of 2022, the S-Network Space Index (SNET SPACE) underperformed other benchmark indexes, declining 25.6%. This compares to a 21.7% decrease for the S-Network U.S. Equity 3000 Index (SNET 3000), which tracks the 3,000 largest (by market capitalization) U.S. stocks. Similarly, there was a 20.8% decrease for the S-Network Global 2500 Index (SNET Global 2500), which tracks a combination of the 1,000 largest U.S. stocks, 500 largest European stocks, 500 largest Pacific basin stocks (developed), and the 500 largest liquid Emerging Market stocks.