The Space Report 2013
... down 7% from 84 in 2011, but it was in line with the average for the previous five years. North Korea attempted two launches in 2012, the second of which became the country’s first launch to reach orbit. ESA conducted the first launch of its new Vega rocket in February 2012, providing the space agen ...
... down 7% from 84 in 2011, but it was in line with the average for the previous five years. North Korea attempted two launches in 2012, the second of which became the country’s first launch to reach orbit. ESA conducted the first launch of its new Vega rocket in February 2012, providing the space agen ...
The Installation Costs of a Satellite and Space Shuttle Launch
... mobile service tower, exhaust ducts, a shuttle assembly building, propulsion and fuel systems test buildings, clean rooms, a payload preparation room, a fuel holding area, liquid hydrogen and oxygen storage room as well as an emergency power building and a railway to transport the spacecraft to the ...
... mobile service tower, exhaust ducts, a shuttle assembly building, propulsion and fuel systems test buildings, clean rooms, a payload preparation room, a fuel holding area, liquid hydrogen and oxygen storage room as well as an emergency power building and a railway to transport the spacecraft to the ...
Private spaceflight
Private spaceflight is flight beyond the Kármán line (above the nominal edge of space at 100 km (62 mi) Earth altitude) that is conducted and paid for by an entity other than a government agency.In the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Union and United States pioneered space technology in collaboration with affiliated design bureaus in the USSR and private companies in the US. The European Space Agency was formed in 1975, largely following the same model of space technology development.Later on, large defense contractors began to develop and operate space launch systems, derived from government rockets. Private spaceflight in Earth orbit includes communications satellites, satellite television, satellite radio, astronaut transport and sub-orbital and orbital space tourism.Entrepreneurs have begun designing and deploying competitive space systems to the national-monopoly governmental systemsof the early decades of the space age.Successes to date include flying suborbital spaceplanes, launching orbital rockets, and flying a couple of orbital expandable test modules (Genesis I and II).Planned private spaceflights beyond Earth orbit include personal spaceflights around the Moon. Two private orbital habitat prototypes are already in Earth orbit, with larger versions to follow. Planned private spaceflights beyond Earth orbit include solar sailing prototypes (LightSail-3).