Infrastructure
Launch
2017 – U.S. Suborbital – Snapshot
Many countries and organizations have floated plans for human suborbital spaceflight. However, there are very few building suborbital launch vehicles for this purpose, and even fewer…
2017 – U.S. Human Launch – Snapshot
The last U.S. human space launch was conducted in 2011. NASA now relies on Russia’s Soyuz space launch system, paying hundreds of millions of dollars to transport U.S. astronauts to…
2017 – European Spaceports – Snapshot
The European Space Agency (ESA) uses a single spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in Kourou, French Guiana. Orbital launch provider Arianespace carried out all…
2017 – Chinese Spaceports – Snapshot
In 2017, China continued using its four spaceports for orbital launches: Jiuquan, Taiyuan, Wenchang, and Xichang. The spaceports were involved in a total of . . .
2017 – Russian Spaceports – Snapshot
During 2017, Russia continued operating three orbital launch spaceports within its territory: Dombarovskiy, Plesetsk, and Vostochny. A fourth spaceport, Baikonur Cosmodrome, is Russia’s . . .
2017 – U.S. Spaceports – Snapshot
During 2017, five spaceports were used by U.S. orbital launch operators: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), Florida; Kennedy Space Center (KSC) . . .
2017 – Spaceports – Snapshot
Given the 91 orbital launch attempts worldwide, it is clear that spaceports were busy in 2017. This activity was distributed across 25 active spaceports. In 2016, spaceports in the . . .
2017 – U.S. Payload Launch – Snapshot
The U.S. share of global orbital launch activities continued to grow, from 26% in 2016 to 33% in 2017. In 2017, the nation’s launch service providers. . .
2017 – Sounding Rockets – Snapshot
NASA’s Sounding Rockets Program Office (SRPO) uses sounding rockets as training tools for engineers and scientists, as well as for educating future engineers and scientists. The program provides . . .
2017 – Suborbital Payload Launch – Snapshot
Compared to suborbital payload launch activities the previous year, 2017 was a relatively quiet year. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) continued work with its…