14 DAY TRIAL // In the early days of spaceflight, only a small number of nations featured dedicated space agencies. Of these countries, only the United States and the Soviet Union had reasons to be proud. The Russians put the first artificial satellite in orbit, whereas the Americans were the first to go beyond orbit, and on to the Moon. But now things are different. The European Space Agency is one of the main players in the industry, with the Indian and Chinese agencies trotting rapidly behind. But, around the world, the total number of agencies has increased considerably in less than a decade, Space reports.
In the 1990s, the upward trend in dedicated space agency numbers experienced a halt, which lasted for a few years. But things began picking up in the early 2000s. Official statistics show that 55 agencies existed in 2009, as opposed to the 40 that were already set up in 2000. The Paris-based company Euroconsult, which was in charge of the new survey, reports that a large part of these organizations are in fact focused on one or two small projects, such as for example constructing minor Earth-observing satellites. The investigations group reveals that it cannot, at this point, establish whether these minor space agencies will ever receive the kind of governmental funding they will need to move up.
But there are also some governments out there, apart from the “established” ones, which invest heavily in space exploration, with ambitious goals. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) wants to put a man in space within the next five to six years, whereas the Chinese Space Agency wants to construct its own space station, having already completed its first manned spaceflights and its first extra-vehicular activities (EVA). The Canadian Space Agency is involved in projects such as the ISS, with its astronauts assigned for duty on the orbital facility, while the UK wants to set up its own agency as well, apart from ESA.
Experts at Euroconsult write in their new investigation, called “Profiles of Government Space Programs: Analysis of 60 Countries & Agencies,” that the amount of money governments allotted for spaceflight increased in 2009. In the civil sector, a 9 percent rise saw the industry reaching a worth of about $36 billion at the global scale. Military investments also increased markedly, by as much as 12 percent. Overall, this industry in 2009 was worth $32 billion. Many researchers say that this trend, of always paying more money for civil space applications, denotes that major powers are willing to commit to science more than they are to violence. However, NASA, RosCosmos and JAXA launch new spy satellites every year.