United Kingdom
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…
2015 – United Kingdom Government Space Budget – Snapshot
In the 2015/16 fiscal year, which ran from April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016, the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) budgeted £370.5 million (US$582.6 million), including…
2015 – German Government Space Budget – Snapshot
Overall, Germany’s spending on space activities in 2015 totaled €1.425 billion (US$1.589 billion), an 8.0% increase from €1.319 billion (US$1.806 billion) in 2014. Germany’s contribution to…
2015 – Government Space Budgets – Snapshot
Total global government space budgets in 2015 were $76.516 billion, a 4.8% decrease from $80.415 billion in 2014. More than half of this spending was in the United States, which budgeted $44.567 billion for government space activities in 2015. Government budget levels reflect the most recent budgetary information available for each country, taking into account the fact…
Infrastructure: Space Infrastructure – TSR 2015
Economy: Space Economy – TSR 2015
2014 – Military Communications
Global, dedicated, and secure communications networks are vital to governments, militaries, and agencies around the world. Increased demand for capacity—particularly secure connectivity using non-commercial frequency bands—continued to drive deployment of dedicated military communications satellite systems. The U.S. military bought significant capacity from commercial operators such as Intelsat and SES in 2014. However, the way the military buys the bandwidth has been criticized by commercial satellite communications services as expensive and outdated.
Tractors Without Farmers
The technology that keeps tractors within field boundaries is changing, using satellite technology to aid farmers in steering farm equipment within centimeters of its intended location. AREA4D is using satellite data from the European GNSS Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) and combining it with localized reference radio stations to build a better, faster, and cheaper PNT network.
Air Traffic Tracking and Traffic Control Space Solutions
Imagery and communications satellites were both used in search and rescue efforts for the Malaysian Airlines MH370 passenger airplane. Imagery of the search areas was provided on sites such as Tomnod in hopes that crowdsourcing imagery analysis would help in locating evidence of where the airplane might have disappeared.
Lawyers use Space Assets to Enforce the Law
As space activities and businesses using space assets grow, entrepreneurs are sensing opportunities in a growing space market. Mixing terrestrial legal expertise with Earth observation technologies, some lawyers are beginning to understand the benefits of space assets in cases that might have otherwise been difficult to win. Legal companies such as Air & Space Evidence are offering specialized space-centric services to clients who might need them. The company uses satellite imagery as part of its toolkit to combat fraud, find and monitor illegal activities, verify environmental claims, and conduct other activities.