United States
2008 – Education Trends/Methodology – Snapshot
The trends examined in this section of the report are based primarily on U.S. government statistics. The main sources of data include the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
2008 – Education – Snapshot
With its many education-dependent career tracks, the space industry is an end user of America’s K-12 system. The problem is that the U.S. education system is not producing students in quantity and at a level of achievement to be globally competitive. Reforms such as the No Child Left Behind Act are important initiatives for the nation’s school children but, to date, have produced improvements that fall short of space industry needs.
2008 – Degrees Awarded – Snapshot
The National Science Foundation tracks “first university degrees,” equivalent to a four-year undergraduate degree in the United States, for six countries: the ##, ##, ##, ##, ##, and the ##. In 2004, the most recent year for which data is available for all six countries, the ## was the leading country in issuing first university degrees in all fields, topping ## million, with ## in second place at ## million.
2008 – Italian Government Space Budget – Snapshot
Italy added to its Earth observation constellation with the October 2008 launch of the third COSMO-SkyMed satellite. Developed through an agreement between the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), and the Italian Ministry of Defence, the COSMO-SkyMed program is estimated to cost €## billion (US$## billion). The imagery collected by the radar satellites is expected to serve both military and civil government purposes.
2008 – U.S. Spaceports – Snapshot
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) lies on the Atlantic shore of Florida, almost directly east of Orlando, and adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The spaceport supports a mix of government civil, military, and commercial launches. Primary users of CCAFS include the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, NASA, and private launch service providers.
2008 – Spaceports – Snapshot
Spaceports operate around the world, offering different capabilities and scales of operation. Some spaceports consist of little more than a basic control center, transportation infrastructure, and launch platform. Others are more elaborate, with facilities for payload processing and integration as well as state-of-the-art mission operation centers.
2008 – French Government Space Budget – Snapshot
Priorities for France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) in 2009 include further refinement of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) and an ongoing role in developing Europe’s new Vega small launch vehicle. Forty CNES and EADS Astrium engineers spent six months preparing the ATV for its March 2008 flight, which proceeded smoothly. This marked the beginning of operations for the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Control Centre in Toulouse, France, which seven months later guided the ATV through a planned destructive re-entry.
2008 – Chinese Government Space Budget – Snapshot
China’s dramatic space progress in the past decade is linked to growing space expenditures through the civilian China National Space Agency (CNSA). Although China does not publish its civil space budget, in 2005 Luo Ge, the vice administrator of the CNSA, stated that the Chinese space budget was US$## million. Many analysts contend that annual Chinese civil space spending is considerably higher, at least one-tenth that of the United States, or around US$## billion.[
2008 – U.S. Civil Space Budgets – Snapshot
The United States budget for NASA was $## billion in FY 2008 and the budget request for FY 2009 was $## billion. Consistent with past allocations, the FY 2010 budget request of $## billion represents about ##%, or a little more than half a penny for each dollar in the president’s total budget request of $## trillion. Major 2009 activities will include up to five shuttle missions on the path to the planned retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2010, ongoing coordination of final ISS assembly, and a variety of scientific missions. To provide a more detailed view of the NASA program activity, Exhibit 1n shows a summary by program through 2013 based on NASA’s FY 2009 Budget Request, which includes appropriated funds for FY 2008.
2008 – U.S. National Security Space Budgets – Snapshot
As noted, DoD spending represents a majority of U.S. government space funding, yet there is limited clarity regarding what is included in this funding overall or how the funds are broken down between the individual military services. As a result, the Defense Appropriations bill passed by Congress for FY 2008 called on the Pentagon to develop a Major Force Program (MFP) budget category to aggregate space spending in a single budget line, including not only equipment and services procurement, but also research and technology development programs. The FY 2009 budget request submitted to Congress identified $## billion as related to major joint space-based programs, including Space-Based Infrared Systems, communications satellites, GPS satellites, environmental satellites, Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites, and related launch vehicles.