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In 2014, China had paused in its BeiDou PNT satellite launch activities with its BeiDou satellites making up 20.5% of the global PNT satellite fleets. There were 16 BeiDou satellites orbiting the Earth in medium or inclined geosynchronous Earth orbits providing regional PNT service to China during 2014. By the end of 2015, China had added another four BeiDou satellites, bringing the constellation strength to more than half of the 35 satellites China anticipates to have in operation by 2020.
Read MoreIndia’s share of the world’s operational PNT satellites hovered around 4% for 2014 and 2015. Launching one Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) satellite in 2015, the country continued to make progress toward its goal of operating seven regionally focused PNT satellites by 2016. All of the IRNSS constellation’s satellites will orbit the Earth in geosynchronous orbit, with four of the seven moving about in inclined orbits while the remaining three stay in a steady geostationary path.
Read MoreThe European Union’s space-based PNT efforts began in 2005, making 2015 the tenth anniversary for its PNT efforts. Galileo, the European PNT satellite system, is scheduled to be complete by 2020. For 2014, Europe owned 5% of the total global operational PNT satellites in orbit that. During 2014, Europe had succeeded in launching six Galileo PNT satellites. However, two of the Galileo satellites were launched into an incorrect orbit in August 2014, effectively reducing the number of operational European PNT satellites orbiting the Earth in 2014 to four.
Read MoreAs of December 2015, Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), comprised 24% of the operational global PNT constellations. Like the U.S. GPS milestone, 2015 marked the 20th anniversary of Russia’s deployment of GLONASS. The initial full deployment of 24 GLONASS satellites occurred in 1995. Completion of testing activities allowed the Russians to consider GLONASS fully operational in early 1996.
Read MoreThe U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite fleet made up 34% of the operational global positioning, navigation, and timing fleets orbiting the Earth in 2015. Originally developed for military use, GPS became fully operational in the spring of 1995, marking 2015 as the 20th anniversary for the constellation. This meant the satellite constellation consisted of a minimum of 24 GPS satellites in their assigned medium Earth orbits after the completion of several tests. Since it became fully operational, the constellation number annually exceeds the baseline requirement by a good margin, not including eight backup GPS satellites.
Read MoreThe activities of three nations were responsible for nearly 76% of all of the world’s orbital SLV launches in 2015. Russia alone carried out 30% of the global orbital space launches, followed by the United States with a little more than 23%, and China with 22%. Compared to 2014, the number of orbital payload launches in 2015 dropped by six to 86.
Read MoreSpace infrastructure is a fundamental prerequisite for all activities that make use of space. It comprises all the hardware, software, and operators responsible for creating and supporting the construction, launch, and deployment of spacecraft. Recent years have seen a substantial broadening of the parties involved in building infrastructure: new spaceports are being proposed and developed, the number of small satellites has risen dramatically (often operated by startup companies), and launch companies are developing a wide variety of rockets to serve the entire range of spacecraft sizes currently in use. Although it is unlikely that all of the current ventures will prove successful in both a technical and economic sense, there are many reasons to expect that the industry will benefit overall from the new capabilities that flourish in the years to come.
Read MoreThe Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) had a 2015 budget of 618.7 billion won (US$553.2 million), an increase of 21.4% from its budget in FY 2014 of 509.6 billion won (US$503.7 million).
Read MoreRussia’s space budget has suffered due to the country’s broader economic crisis. Officials of Roscosmos, Russia’s federal space agency, announced in December 2015 that,,,
Read MoreThe European space workforce included 38,435 workers in 2015, according to Eurospace, an association of the European space manufacturing industry. Eurospace conducts annual surveys of European firms involved…
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