Browse Resources by Year

2016 – ESA: SSA – Snapshot

As more European-made satellites are launched into Earth’s orbit, more Europeans are realizing the importance of space traffic management (STM) and space situational awareness (SSA). The European Space Agency (ESA) continued to fund its own SSA program through 2016, which involves…

2016 – Canada: Sapphire and NEOSSat – Snapshot

Two low Earth orbiting Canadian satellites, Sapphire and NEOSSat, provided spaceborne space situational awareness (SSA) for Canada during 2016. While they are both SSA satellites, they fulfill different SSA missions. Sapphire, a Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) satellite launched in 2013, is a part of the Canadian Space…

2016 – NASA Workforce – Snapshot

Like the industry as a whole, NASA’s workforce has experienced steady ## in size. From the start of FY 1993, the earliest date for which data is available in NASA’s…

2016 – U.S. Commercial Space Surveillance – Snapshot

With increased demands for space traffic management (STM) and space situational awareness (SSA), commercial companies, such as Schafer Corporation, formed businesses during 2016 to meet the demand. These commercial STM and SSA providers are building their own space object catalogs and using commercial sensor networks to…

2016 – U.S.: ATRR, GSSAP, ANGELS, and SBSS – Snapshot

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) continued adding space situational awareness (SSA) satellites to the nation’s operational military SSA satellite inventory during 2016. By the end of the year, seven satellites made up the nation’s unclassified SSA fleet. These were the Automated Navigation and Guidance Experiment for Local Space (ANGELS), Advanced Technology…

2016 – Bigelow Space Stations – Snapshot

In April 2016, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) was launched and attached to the International Space Station (ISS). During transport, the module was…

2016 – China Space Stations – Snapshot

China launched a new space station laboratory in the middle of September 2016, making China the only nation to have two space stations in orbit, although one appears to no longer be…

2016 – Earth Observation – Snapshot

The commercial remote sensing industry was estimated at $## billion in 2016, up ##% from $## billion in 2015. Market research firm Northern Sky Research expects the sector to generate an aggregate $## billion over the decade leading up to 2025. Much of this growth…

2016 – PNT Ground Networks – Snapshot

In 2016, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) continued to operate and maintain a large, combined-services ground network for its positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) fleet, the Global Positioning System (GPS). Consisting of 15 monitoring stations and 11 command and control antennas, the network was commanded through the USAF’s

2016 – International Space Station – Snapshot

During 2016, the International Space Station (ISS) continued to be the primary inhabited space laboratory orbiting the Earth. An international contingent of scientists, engineers, and researchers used the ISS for various microgravity-based experiments.

One ISS program, NASA’s human research One-Year Mission, required astronaut…