China
2015 – Chinese Spaceports
China’s orbital space launch activities are conducted through three spaceports: Xichang, Jiuquan, and Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centers. Nearly ##% of the country’s 2015 space launches originated from Xichang. A fourth…
2014 – Spaceports Overview
Space launch vehicles and their payloads are prepared and subsequently launched or deployed from facilities called spaceports. The scale of spaceports varies widely, whether measuring the area they cover or…
2015 – Military Reconnaissance
The inherent security requirements of military operations make it very difficult to pinpoint the exact number and nature of reconnaissance satellites launched by nations. The space-based inventory of a nation’s…
2015 – Surface Imaging
The number of surface imaging satellites launched continued to grow in 2015. The sub-category dominated the greater category of Earth observation and remote sensing satellites launched in 2015, taking a…
2015 – BeiDou
In 2014, China had paused in its BeiDou PNT satellite launch activities with its BeiDou satellites making up ##% of the global PNT satellite fleets. There were ## BeiDou satellites…
2014 – Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Systems
The military and commercial value of positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems has gained such prominence that PNT systems are often considered to be critical infrastructure. The proliferation of smartphones…
2014 – Annual Space Stations Overview
While satellites are essentially a platform upon which useful equipment can be mounted, space stations are a fundamentally different kind of asset. Space stations have been envisioned as permanent or…
2015 – China Launch, Human
China’s most recent human mission to space was in June 2013, when three taikonauts docked a capsule with the Tiangong-1 space station. Since then, China has announced plans to launch…
2014 – Orbital Human Space Launch
It is relatively simple to place a satellite into orbit when compared with launching humans to space. Humans have more complex needs, such as breathable air, food, staying warm, staying…
2014 – Chinese Government Space Budget
The structure and organization of the Chinese space program is not transparent. This makes it difficult to obtain credible data on the Chinese national space enterprise, including budget and organization.…