Browse Resources by Year

2010 – Japanese Space Industry Employment – Snapshot

According to data from the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies (SJAC), Japan’s space employment dropped precipitously between 2007 and 2008, but then rebounded even more sharply from 2008 to 2009, as shown in Exhibit 4l. The SJAC calculated a ##% decline in industry employment, from ## in 2007 to ## in 2008—the largest year-on-year decline since 1996, with more than ## positions eliminated.

2010 – U.S. Launch Efforts – Snapshot

The U.S. launch industry sustained a healthy rate of launches and saw the successful debut of ## new rockets, the Falcon 9 and the Minotaur IV. The United States accounted for ## launches in 2010, below the 2009 level of ## launches but comparable to its 2005-2009 average of ## launches a year.

2010 – Orbital Astrophysics Systems – Snapshot

ESA’s Herschel and Planck observatories were launched together in May 2009, and both are being used to study the evolution of distant stars and the effects of the Big Bang. In July 2010, both missions made noteworthy progress: the Planck mission produced its first map of the entire sky at microwave wavelengths, while the Journal Astronomy & Astrophysics published a special issue dedicated to Herschel, featuring 152 papers based on new data from the mission.

2010 – Solar Orbital Systems – Snapshot

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) was launched from Cape Canaveral in February 2010. SDO studies where the Sun’s energy comes from, explores its inner workings, and helps scientists learn more about how energy is stored and released in the Sun’s atmosphere.

2010 – Ground Observatories, Astronomy – Snapshot

Ground-based observatories are essential tools to aid astronomers in their study of objects that can be as close as our neighboring planets or billions of light years away. Scientists are always striving to study their subjects in detail, so they need to obtain the best possible images.

2010 – Orbital Launch Reports and Forecasts – Snapshot

Launch vehicles can be grouped into two categories. The first consists of vehicles that can propel their payloads fast enough at a sufficient altitude to achieve orbit. A launch vehicle that is unable to place a payload in orbit, but can still carry a payload into space, is referred to as a suborbital launch vehicle.

2010 – Probes – Snapshot

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft was launched in March 2009 aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Kepler’s mission is to monitor the brightness of more than 100,000 stars in a single region of the sky for at least three years.

2010 – European Military Space Budget – Snapshot

Most nations do not make details about their budgets, programs, and missions related to national security and intelligence activities publicly available. In addition, as some programs have civilian and military applications, isolating the military portion of dual-use programs is not always possible. As a case in point, the European Defence Agency continues to consolidate its relationship with ESA through coordinating definitions, research, technology, and feasibility studies, with particular focus on the development of a three-satellite Multinational Space-based Imaging System (MUSIS) program.

2010 – South Korean Government Space Budget – Snapshot

In calendar year 2010, South Korea spent an estimated ## billion won (US$## million) on civil space, a ##% decrease from the 2009 budget of ## billion won ($##million). South Korea’s 2010 planned civil space spending constitutes approximately ##% of the country’s ## trillion won (US$## billion) national budget. Civil space activities in South Korea are carried out by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). During 2010, South Korean space activities included the launch of the Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS-1) and a second attempted flight of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), South Korea’s space launch vehicle.

2010 – Infrastructure Metrics – Snapshot

Some accepted estimation methods fais to take into account the fact that not all launch vehicles are equal. The smallest orbital launch vehicles can place payloads of only a few hundred kilograms into orbit, while the largest vehicles can carry tens of thousands of kilograms. This section explains how the Space Foundation provides meaningful methods of measuring space infrastructure.