United States
2009 – Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) – Snapshot
Mobile satellite services (MSS) providers connect phones and other handheld devices directly to satellites to provide near-constant coverage, even in African villages, Antarctic bases, offshore oil rigs, and other remote places not served by terrestrial facilities. The services themselves can include telephone calls, internet access, or mobile television and radio. The satellite fleets can use different orbits ranging from LEO all the way up to GEO.
2009 – U.S. Space Industry Salaries – Snapshot
Space industry jobs stimulate the overall economy more than most other jobs because they offer higher salaries on average. Higher salaries provide professionals with more discretionary income to consume goods and services or reinvest in the larger economy. They also foster a larger tax base with which to make public investments.
2009 – Spaceports – Snapshot
Spaceports operate around the world, offering different capabilities and operational scale. In its most basic form, a spaceport is a facility dedicated to launching an orbital or suborbital craft. This can be as basic and streamlined as a concrete pad, a launch rail, a fuel depot, and a simple control room. Alternatively, it can be a huge facility that extends over of hundreds of square kilometers and incorporates tracking stations, payload processing and integration facilities, long runways, and additional facilities for visitors and media.
2009 – U.S. Human Launch – Snapshot
The Space Shuttle, also known as the Space Transportation System (STS), consists of an active fleet of three orbiters: Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. The Shuttles are the United States’ primary method of transferring crew, supplies, and new modules to the ISS.
2009 – Disaster Charter – Snapshot
Remote sensing satellites provide data to assess the scope and impact of disasters that have occurred. The information also enables planning for the mitigation of events that may occur. The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters provides a means for relief agencies to request satellite imagery of an area affected by a disaster.
2009 – U.S. National Security Space Budgets – Snapshot
Estimating worldwide government spending on military space activities is difficult because in most cases defense budgets are not fully, or even partially, transparent. The opaque nature of defense programs is complicated by the fact that many space products and applications have dual civilian and military uses, so the funding sources may be mixed between civil and military budgets. However, it is possible to estimate non-US military space spending in the aggregate based on observed trends in national programs and priorities. In 2008, it was estimated that ##% of the worldwide government spending on defense-related space programs occurred in the United States. Estimated U.S. defense space spending in 2009 totaled $## billion, meaning that worldwide military space spending in 2009, excluding the United States, can be estimated at $## billion.
2009 – Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) Space Activities – Snapshot
GEO satellites provide a wide fixed coverage area, making them ideal for reaching a community of stationary antennas that do not need to track a moving object in space. The dominant providers of international fixed satellite services (FSS) are Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat, and Telesat. These four companies collectively own slightly more than half of all GEO commercial communications satellites, and represented ##% of total FSS market revenues in 2008.
2009 – Trends and Events Affecting U.S. Employment – Snasphot
From 2004 to 2008, nearly four U.S. space jobs were added for every one that was lost. During this period, employment in every sector of the U.S. space industry recorded by the BLS grew, except for satellite telecommunications. The bursting of the telecom bubble led to a decline in U.S. satellite telecommunications jobs from ## in 2001 to ## by 2004, a contraction of nearly 24%.
2009 – U.S. Space Industry Outlook – Snapshot
The most authoritative source of U.S. space industry workforce data is the Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. space industry core employment is measured by assessing the six BLS North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes detailed in Exhibit 4b. While NAICS codes reflect an official U.S. government approach to understanding and measuring employees and salaries, in some cases NAICS codes combine workers from different industry sectors under the same labor category, complicating an exact labor count.
2009 – Russian Government Space Budget – Snapshot
Russian space spending increased dramatically in 2009. The planned budget for Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, was more than ## billion rubles (US$## billion). This amount constitutes an increase of ##% from the previous year’s budget of ## billion rubles and represents approximately ##% of Russia’s ## trillion ruble (US$## billion) planned 2009 federal expenditures. This increase signifies both a positive view of the Russian space program within the Russian government and increased Russian government revenue due to oil markets.