Browse Resources by Year

2012 – Space as a Tool of International Trade and Development

Space, Development, and International Trade in Africa Africa’s space sector typifies the dynamics at play in the intersection of space, trade, and development. The African continent is expanding the scale…

2012 – China Space Stations

China has a long-term and active project to develop a permanently crewed space station in LEO. The first phase of that project started in 2011 with the launch of an experimental space laboratory named Tiangong-1. The spacecraft, which is 10.4 meters (34.1 feet) long and weighs 8,500 kilograms (18,700 pounds), has 15 cubic meters (530 cubic feet) of habitable volume and is equipped with sleeping stations and exercise gear for visiting crews.

2012 – QZSS

Japan is creating the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), consisting of ## or ## satellites in a quasi-zenith orbit, and ## satellites in GEO to be operated by JAXA. This network will supplement its signals with those of the GPS network and, by using a tailored GEO orbit, will provide improved positioning performance in urban and mountainous regions. These GEO satellites will not be fixed over the Equator like typical FSS satellites but will regularly move north and south in relation to the Equator, making them easier to be seen from those areas where line-of-sight visibility to GPS can be difficult.

2012 – IRNSS

The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) will include ## satellites providing coverage primarily for South Asia. Like the Japanese system, ## of the ## will be in non-equatorial GEO, while ## will be in traditional GEO. The first satellite is scheduled to be launched in early 2013. India also has a GPS augmentation system called GPS-Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN, which is Hindi for “sky”), designed to improve air navigation in India. In September 2012, the second of three GAGAN payloads was put in orbit aboard the GSAT-10 satellite.

2012 – Galileo

Europe also has made strides in developing its PNT system, Galileo. A joint initiative between the European Commission (EC) and ESA, the Galileo constellation will consist of ## operational satellites and ## in-orbit spares flying in MEO. The initial Galileo constellation is expected to be in place between 2014 and 2016. In October 2012, Europe launched the ## and ## Galileo in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites, joining ## more IOV satellites that were deployed one year earlier. Once activated, this ##-satellite validation fleet, built by Astrium, will demonstrate Galileo’s ability to provide highly precise, three-dimensional positioning.

2012 – BeiDou

Since 2000, China has been building its own PNT system, known as BeiDou. In December 2011, the Chinese government announced that its initial services—location data and SMS messaging—commenced for users within China. The two-way nature of this system allows the Chinese government to track the position of terrestrial BeiDou users, enabling applications such as asset tracking. Basic services to surrounding regions in Asia were scheduled to commence in 2012.

2012 – GLONASS

After a 15-year hiatus, Russia’s GLONASS PNT system returned to fully operational status in 2011, re-establishing full global coverage. The GLONASS constellation was started by the Soviet Union in 1982 and was briefly operational in 1996 after its ## satellite was deployed. However, due in part to the Russian financial crisis in the 1990s, funding to maintain the network evaporated and it fell into disrepair. Without replacements, the fleet had only ## functioning satellites by 2002.

2012 – GPS

To many consumers, all satellite-based navigation is synonymous with the term “GPS,” but this acronym only refers to one specific network. The U.S. Navigation Signal Timing and Ranging Global Positioning System (NAVSTAR-GPS or GPS) was developed by the USAF and, until recently, was the only fully operational global satellite-based navigation network that supported civilian and commercial use. Operational since 1995, the system uses at least ## active satellites in MEO to provide global coverage while maintaining others in orbit as backups. The Air Force currently maintains ## GPS satellites, plus ## to ## decommissioned satellites that can still be reactivated as needed.

2012 – Bigelow Space Stations

In addition to the ISS and Chinese efforts, there are other plans, of varying degrees of maturity, for other space stations. Bigelow Aerospace has been developing inflatable module technology that can be used for commercial space stations. Two prototype spacecraft, Genesis I and II, were launched in 2006 and 2007, respectively, to demonstrate the technology.

2012 – ISS

The ISS is the largest spacecraft currently in orbit, measuring 109 meters (358 feet) long, with a mass of almost 419,500 kilograms (925,000 pounds). The station was developed and is operated by an international partnership of NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA, and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).