MIT Tech Review

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Spain Netherlands India Indonesia Czechoslovakia Saudi Arabia Brazil Mexico Sweden Luxembourg Israel Hong Kong Argentina Pakistan South Korea Thailand Portugal Turkey Czech Republic Ukraine Malaysia Norway Philippines Egypt Chile Singapore Denmark South Africa Taiwan UAE Bermuda Morocco Algeria Nigeria Greece Iran Kazakhstan Mauritius Colombia Vietnam Venezuela Switzerland 15 5 54 15 3 23 13 7 12 20 13 10 6 2 12 7 1 6 3 3 6 7 1 4 1 3 4 2 8 5 17 1 2 2 1 3 1 3 1 1 1 2

China 150

200

Japan

2,031

150

154

3,960

100

Germany

USA

50

ESRO & ESA

USSR/Russia

25

59

Amateur (includes universities)

France Australia

TOTAL PAYLOADS

Government (nonmilitary)

74 13

COUNTRY

Commercial

U.K. Canada Italy Joint Ventures

ANNUAL PAYLOADS 0

Military

48 35 26 92

graphiti

PURPOSE

(payloads by country and purpose, annually)

53

SPACE LAUNCHES

’10

26

Graphiti

’90

Russia USSR

’85

’75

’60 ’57 USSR 1957 Sputnik 1 placed into orbit

USA 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing

China

Japan

Germany

ESRO & ESA

Italy Joint Ventures

’65

France Australia

’70

Spain Netherlands India Indonesia Czechoslovakia

’80

technology review September /October 2011

Iran Kazakhstan Mauritius Colombia Vietnam Venezuela Switzerland

Saudi Arabia Brazil Mexico Sweden Luxembourg Israel Hong Kong Argentina Pakistan South Korea Thailand Portugal Turkey Czech Republic Ukraine Malaysia Norway Philippines Egypt Chile Singapore Denmark South Africa Taiwan UAE Bermuda Morocco Algeria Nigeria Greece

’95

’05

’00

’95

’90

’85

’80

’75

’70

’65

’60 ’57

NASA

he retirement of the space shuttles marks the end of NASA’s human spaceflight program, at least for now. But human missions funded by the U.S. government have represented only a small part of the action in space. Of the 7,000 spacecraft that have been launched into orbit or beyond, more than half were defense satellites used for such purposes as communication, navigation, and imaging. (The Soviet Union sent up a huge number, partly because its satellites tended to be much shorter-lived than those from the United States.) In the 1970s, private companies began increasingly adding to the mix, launching satellites for telecommunications and broadcasting. This graphic groups payloads by the nationality of the owner. A satellite, a capsule of cosmonauts, or a deep-space probe would each count as one payload. The data, which run through July 2011, were drawn from hundreds of sources, including space agency documents, academic journals, and interviews. They were compiled by Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and author of Jonathan’s Space Report, a newsletter that tracks launches. —Mike Orcutt

’00

U.K. Canada

T

USA 2011 Final space shuttle mission

USA

Human exploration is the most visible use of spaceflight, but business and defense satellites fill the sky.

’05

USSR Russia

Space over Time

’10

Notes: “Joint Ventures” refers to the multinational satellite consortia INTELSAT, INMARSAT, EUTELSAT, and EUMETSAT. The European Space Research Organization (ESRO) was a forerunner to the European Space Agency (ESA), which was formed in 1975.

www.technologyreview.com

Graphiti

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