Infrastructure
Full Story: 2020 in Launches: Successes, Failures, and Everything in Between
This was the year of the partial success. From the LauncherOne demo to the maiden flight of the KZ-11, 2020 saw explosions and anomalies around the world. Companies such as…
Infrastructure: Human Spaceflight – TSRQ3 2020
Introduction | Since Yuri Gagarin’s orbital flight around the Earth in April 1961, humans in pioneering new technologies and pushing the limits of what’s considered possible. This year ushered in…
Infrastructure: Spacecraft/Satellites Overview – TSRQ2 2020
Introduction | Spacecraft deployment numbers rose by five in 2019, increasing slightly to 466 spacecraft deployments last year. While deployments moved up, space vehicle launch attempts decreased from 114 in…
Economy Insights: Commercial Activity on the International Space Station – TSRQ1 2020
Introduction | This year marks the 20th anniversary of human habitation on the International Space Station (ISS). That sustained success means NASA and the ISS U.S. National Laboratory, which share…
As Orbiting Debris Increases, New Technologies Emerge for Tracking, Capturing – TSRQ1 2020
As Space Debris Piles Up and Satellite Deployments Grow, Calls for Space Tracking Mount Relative to the vastness of space, the near collision was frighteningly close. On Jan. 29, 2020,…
Infrastructure: Orbital Launch Vehicle Overview – TSRQ1 2020
2019 Orbital Space Launch Activity Launch vehicle activities, despite the colloquialisms about rocket science, are routine enough that, on average, two launches occurred per week last year. Seven countries attempted…
Infrastructure: Spaceports – TSRQ4 2019
Spaceport upgrades and new spaceport development are at an all-time high, with 40 active launch sites around the globe, 10 more in development in the United States, Sweden, Australia and…
Infrastructure: Orbital Launch Vehicle Overview – TSRQ2 2019
Introduction |Throughout 2018, nations, multinational organizations, industry, and academia launched payloads and experiments into orbit and on suborbital flights. Six nations, including the European Space Agency (ESA), continued, and in…
2018 – Galileo Ground Networks – Snapshot
Responsibility for the operation of the Galileo constellation’s ground system moved in 2018 from the European Space Agency (ESA) to the European Global Navigation Satellite System (EGNSS) Agency (GSA). The…
2018 – GPS Ground Networks – Snapshot
In 2018, the USAF continued GPS operations with ground equipment that is decades old. The number of command and control antennas (which the USAF uses to send GPS satellite commands…