North Korea
Strikes in Ukraine Spotlight U.S., European Deficits in Hypersonic Arms Race
Russia’s use of hypersonic weapons in Ukraine is the latest escalation in a growing arms race for missiles that can travel through the atmosphere at more than Mach 5. The U.S. and its allies are accelerating spending on hypersonic weapons development, but haven’t fielded one to date, prompting leaders to fear a missile gap. . .
2016 TSRQ1 – Space Products & Innovation
As humans continue to explore space, their ingenuity brings the technology used for space operations and exploration down to Earth. Whether leading sport-fishermen to a favorite fishing hole, or helping farmers predict crop yields, space products and services continue to make things convenient for humans and help them survive during turbulent times.
Satellite Imagery Analysis Ready For Business
Imagery intelligence is becoming more available to the public, as services such as Allsource Analysis gained attention in the news. In October 2014, the Longmont, Colorado, company wrote a comprehensive summary in which it identified a new kind of North Korean submarine in port during its monitoring of North Korean political prisoner camps.
2014 – Spaceports Overview
Space launch vehicles and their payloads are prepared and subsequently launched or deployed from facilities called spaceports. The scale of spaceports varies widely, whether measuring the area they cover or the activities they host.
2013 – Military Reconnaissance
Military-specific observation satellites can be used for reconnaissance or other intelligence-gathering purposes. The capabilities of remote sensing satellites can sometimes obscure whether or not they are being used for civilian or military applications.
2013 – Spaceports Overview
Spaceports are the facilities where launch vehicles and their payloads are prepared and subsequently launched. Spaceports vary widely in scale. They range from the relatively austere Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska, which typically conducts only one launch every year or two from its one pad, to a sprawling facility such as Baikonur, which covers thousands of square kilometers and conducts about one-third of all global launches per year, lifting off from more operational launch pads than are found in any other spaceport.
2013 – Other Countries, Launch, Payload
South Korea conducted ## successful orbital launch in 2013. After suffering two previous launch failures of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV)-1, arguments arose between the Russian manufacturers of the vehicle’s first stage and the South Korean manufacturers of the second stage over the responsibility for the vehicle’s failures.
2013 – Orbital Launch Reports and Forecasts
2013 was a fairly typical year for the global orbital launch industry, with ## launch attempts—slightly higher than the 2009–2013 average of ##. Of the ## orbital launch attempts in 2013, ## were successful. A launch is considered successful if its payload is deployed in an orbit that allows it to successfully complete its mission.
2012 – Other Countries, Launch, Payload
In 2012, several smaller countries and organizations demonstrated their ability, or at least ambitions, to conduct an orbital space launch. The privately held Sea Launch company, which focuses on deploying commercial communications satellites to geosynchronous orbit (GEO), declared bankruptcy in 2010.
Woodchoppers Fall: Catching North Korean Illegal Logging Operations
In May 2010, a researcher at Purdue University used a combination of NASA satellite imagery and information from Google Earth to determine that North Korea was conducting illegal logging operations in a U.N.-protected forest.