Russia
2008 – Orbital Launch Reports and Forecasts
From the launch of the Sputnik satellite on October 4, 1957, through the end of 2008, approximately ## orbital launches have occurred. These missions carried some ten thousand satellites, experiments, probes, landers, and other spacecraft on trajectories ranging from Earth orbit to missions beyond our solar system.
2008 – Russia Launch, Human
Russia’s Soyuz is the most frequently launched human-rated vehicle. The Soyuz typically performs five to six missions per year at regular intervals to ferry crew and cargo to the ISS. In the period between retirement of the Space Shuttle and introduction of a new U.S. human-rated launch system, the Soyuz is expected to be the only vehicle able to transport crew members to the space station. Since 2001, the Soyuz has also been used six times to transport private spaceflight participants to and from the ISS under a partnership with the space exploration company, Space Adventures.
2008 – Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services – Snapshot
The satellite positioning market is extremely large, with estimates of the total revenues from equipment and services ranging as high as $## billion a year, according to a 2008 study from ABI Research. Since there is no direct usage fee for the positioning signal provided by the GPS satellites, these revenues flow from user equipment, software applications, and secondary services related to such applications. The equipment market is discussed with other ground equipment and the associated revenues are included in the ground equipment revenues.
2008 – Space Employment – Snapshot
The economic impacts and human capital effects of global space activity are mutually reinforcing. Worldwide space activity is a driver of industry and commerce, both in economic sectors with a primary space linkage and in secondary and tertiary supporting industries. As space-related economic activity stimulates economic growth, it employs individuals, shapes educational needs, and informs public policy priorities.
2008 – Launch Industry – Snapshot
The pace of operations in the launch industry was essentially unchanged in 2008 with ## total orbital launches carrying ## payloads. This compares with ## orbital launches in 2007 carrying ## payloads and continues a steady four-year increase in global space launch count. Each Space Shuttle mission is counted as a single payload. Of the ## launches in 2008, ## carried commercial payloads, ## carried non-commercial payloads.
2008 – Russian Spaceports – Snapshot
Founded in 1955 by the Soviet Union, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is the world’s oldest and largest spaceport. It supports several generations of Russian spacecraft: Soyuz, Molniya, Proton, Tsyklon, Dnepr, and the Zenit. Baikonur’s storied history dates back to the launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, the event that set in motion the Cold War “space race.”
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 – Commercial Space and Entrepreneurial Advancement
Commercial space programs, like their government counterparts, continue to evolve around the world. As detailed in Space Products and Services, the more established programs in satellite communications and remote sensing are being joined by entrepreneurial space activities that provide excitement an… Thank you for visiting The Space Report! The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity,…
2008 – Demand Drivers and Growth Areas – Snapshot
The primary industries using space-based products and services involve Earth-orbiting satellites used for communication; remote sensing and Earth observation; and position, navigation, and timing. An emerging sector of inspace products and services now includes personal spaceflight and private space research. Companies in this sector also support defense and civil government in-space programs.
2007 – GLONASS
Russia has recently committed to upgrading its Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) to full operational capacity of ## operational satellites by late 2009. The GLONASS system, once set to rival the U.S. GPS system, saw its number of operational satellites fall from ## in 1995 to seven in 2001 due to financial difficulties and the relatively short lifetimes of the individual satellites. In 2007, Russia launched ## GLONASS-M platforms and began operating ## additional satellites that had been launched in late December 2006.