2008
2008 – United Kingdom Government Space Budget – Snapshot
The UK Civil Space Strategy 2008-2012 and Beyond, updated in early 2008, recommends spending for climatology, Earth observation, and Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) satellites. The United Kingdom’s leadership in the field of disaster monitoring continued in 2008, as DMC imagery provided vital information in regions hit by natural disasters. There are also plans to supply climate researchers with free imagery from the next generation of DMC satellites.
2008 – Italian Government Space Budget – Snapshot
Italy added to its Earth observation constellation with the October 2008 launch of the third COSMO-SkyMed satellite. Developed through an agreement between the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), and the Italian Ministry of Defence, the COSMO-SkyMed program is estimated to cost €## billion (US$## billion). The imagery collected by the radar satellites is expected to serve both military and civil government purposes.
2008 – Russian Spaceports – Snapshot
Founded in 1955 by the Soviet Union, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is the world’s oldest and largest spaceport. It supports several generations of Russian spacecraft: Soyuz, Molniya, Proton, Tsyklon, Dnepr, and the Zenit. Baikonur’s storied history dates back to the launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, the event that set in motion the Cold War “space race.”
2008 – U.S. Spaceports – Snapshot
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) lies on the Atlantic shore of Florida, almost directly east of Orlando, and adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The spaceport supports a mix of government civil, military, and commercial launches. Primary users of CCAFS include the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, NASA, and private launch service providers.
2008 – German Government Space Budget – Snapshot
Germany is investing in surface system robotics and enhancements in synthetic aperture radar technology, including the TerraSAR-L satellite, a follow-on to its successful TerraSAR-X Earth observation mission. The German Aerospace Center, DLR, engaged in a public-private partnership with Astrium GmbH to produce TerraSAR-X at a total cost of €## million (US$## million), including manufacturing and launch. The launch of the radar-imagery satellite SAR-Lupe 5 in July 2008 marked the completion of Germany’s first satellite-supported reconnaissance system, estimated to have a total project cost of €## million (US$## million).
2008 – Spaceports – Snapshot
Spaceports operate around the world, offering different capabilities and scales of operation. Some spaceports consist of little more than a basic control center, transportation infrastructure, and launch platform. Others are more elaborate, with facilities for payload processing and integration as well as state-of-the-art mission operation centers.
2008 – French Government Space Budget – Snapshot
Priorities for France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) in 2009 include further refinement of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) and an ongoing role in developing Europe’s new Vega small launch vehicle. Forty CNES and EADS Astrium engineers spent six months preparing the ATV for its March 2008 flight, which proceeded smoothly. This marked the beginning of operations for the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Control Centre in Toulouse, France, which seven months later guided the ATV through a planned destructive re-entry.
2008 – European Space Agency Budget – Snapshot
The European Space Agency (ESA), with 18 member states, had a 2008 budget of about €## billion (US$## billion). ESA is projecting a budget of €## billion (US$## billion) for the three years from 2009–2011. One feature of the budget will be a ##% per year growth in the agency’s basic science budget. The combined civil space spending for 2008, including both national space programs and ESA contributions of the four largest members, Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, amounted to about €## billion (US$## billion), approximately ##% of their averaged national budgets.
2008 – Chinese Government Space Budget – Snapshot
China’s dramatic space progress in the past decade is linked to growing space expenditures through the civilian China National Space Agency (CNSA). Although China does not publish its civil space budget, in 2005 Luo Ge, the vice administrator of the CNSA, stated that the Chinese space budget was US$## million. Many analysts contend that annual Chinese civil space spending is considerably higher, at least one-tenth that of the United States, or around US$## billion.[
2008 – Canadian Government Space Budget – Snapshot
The Canadian Space Agency oversees an annual budget of about C$## million (US$## million), a figure unchanged for several years. Canada focuses its space spending on three main areas: satellite communication and navigation systems, space robotics, and Earth observation and remote sensing. In 2008, Canada’s space spending constituted approximately ##% of Canada’s C$## billion (US$## billion) national budget.