Launch

2017 – U.S. Suborbital – Snapshot

Many countries and organizations have floated plans for human suborbital spaceflight. However, there are very few building suborbital launch vehicles for this purpose, and even fewer…

2017 – U.S. Human Launch – Snapshot

The last U.S. human space launch was conducted in 2011. NASA now relies on Russia’s Soyuz space launch system, paying hundreds of millions of dollars to transport U.S. astronauts to…

2017 – European Spaceports – Snapshot

The European Space Agency (ESA) uses a single spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in Kourou, French Guiana. Orbital launch provider Arianespace carried out all…

2017 – Chinese Spaceports – Snapshot

In 2017, China continued using its four spaceports for orbital launches: Jiuquan, Taiyuan, Wenchang, and Xichang. The spaceports were involved in a total of . . .

2017 – Russian Spaceports – Snapshot

During 2017, Russia continued operating three orbital launch spaceports within its territory: Dombarovskiy, Plesetsk, and Vostochny. A fourth spaceport, Baikonur Cosmodrome, is Russia’s . . .

2017 – U.S. Spaceports – Snapshot

During 2017, five spaceports were used by U.S. orbital launch operators: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), Florida; Kennedy Space Center (KSC) . . .

2017 – Spaceports – Snapshot

Given the 91 orbital launch attempts worldwide, it is clear that spaceports were busy in 2017. This activity was distributed across 25 active spaceports. In 2016, spaceports in the . . .

2017 – U.S. Payload Launch – Snapshot

The U.S. share of global orbital launch activities continued to grow, from 26% in 2016 to 33% in 2017. In 2017, the nation’s launch service providers. . .

2017 – Sounding Rockets – Snapshot

NASA’s Sounding Rockets Program Office (SRPO) uses sounding rockets as training tools for engineers and scientists, as well as for educating future engineers and scientists. The program provides . . .

2017 – Suborbital Payload Launch – Snapshot

Compared to suborbital payload launch activities the previous year, 2017 was a relatively quiet year. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) continued work with its…

Infrastructure