2015
2015 – Earth Observation and Remote Sensing – Snapshot
Learning about the Earth, its climate, and the impacts of human activities upon it continued to drive launches of Earth observation and remote sensing satellites in 2015. Earth observation/remote sensing satellites accounted for 40% of all spacecraft launched or deployed during 2015.
2015 – Japanese Space Industry Employment – Snapshot
The Japanese space workforce increased by 3.2% from 2013 to 2014, reaching 8,232 workers. This is nearly 30% larger than the size of the space workforce five years prior, in 2009.
2015 – European Commercial Space Surveillance – Snapshot
Collision avoidance is gaining the attention of commercial satellite operators as the Earth’s orbits continue to become more congested. A non-profit association of satellite operators from the Isle of Man, the Space Data Association, offers conjunction assessment services to its members. The automated space situational awareness system, operated under contract by AGI, came fully online in 2011 and is intended to aid space operators by alerting them about possible on-orbit collisions and radio frequency interference.
2015 – France: SSA – Snapshot
SSA operations in France are shared by the French Air Force and the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES). The missions for French SSA activities are similar to U.S. military efforts, attempting to catalog all low Earth orbiting objects for collision and launch avoidance. The French do use U.S. SSA-provided data, but they augment the data with data from their own systems.
2015 – ESA: SSA – Snapshot
The European Space Agency is funding its own SSA program, mandated in 2008, launched in 2009, and funded through 2016. Europe’s increasing dependence on space-based services and infrastructure was a key factor in developing alternatives to non-European SSA sources. ESA’s SSA activities involve more than observing and tracking Earth orbiting objects.
2015 – Russia: SSA – Snapshot
Russian SSA efforts are operated by the military, as is the case in the United States. Russia’s Space Control Center (TSKKP) falls within the Defense Ministry’s Main Space Intelligence Center. The focus of the TSKKP is to find, track, and identify objects orbiting the Earth. This allows the TSKKP to analyze the intent of satellites from foreign nations as well as determine whether objects in space pose an immediate threat to Russian space assets.
2015 – U.S. Commercial Space Surveillance – Snapshot
U.S.-based companies like Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI) are developing their own SSA initiatives. Supplying services based more on the USSTRATCOM vision of SSA to space operators, commercial SSA services, processes and teams offer an alternative to JSpOC. Although the notifications from the JSpOC are helpful, they still require a capable orbital analyst to analyze the data contained within the messages and calculate whether a particular satellite needs to move to avoid a collision. Hiring a full-time orbital analyst to focus only on collision avoidance can be expensive for smaller satellite operators, such as Planet Labs.
2015 – U.S. Space Surveillance Network – Snapshot
Since July 2010, the United States Strategic Command’s Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) has collected satellite orbit data and provided SSA to military, government, and commercial satellite operators through sending out predictions of close approaches for operational satellites. In October 2015, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) stated the intent to spend $6 billion on SSA activities and technology upgrades in the next five years.
2015 – Canada: Sapphire and NEOSSat – Snapshot
Canadian SSA operations are conducted using two satellites: Sapphire and NEOSSat. The Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) uses Sapphire, which moves around the Earth in a sun-synchronous orbit to detect the reflections of other objects in space. It entered its five-year operational phase in early 2014, monitoring thousands of space objects every 24 hours in 2015. Data collected from Sapphire is shared with the U.S. Space Surveillance Network.
2015 – European Space Industry Employment – Snapshot
Data on the European space workforce is collected annually via surveys by Eurospace, an association of the European space manufacturing industry. The survey focuses on design, development, and…