The Space Economy at a Glance 2011
Space applications have become an important part of everyday life. Weather forecasting, air traffic control, global communications and broadcasting, disaster management -- these and many other key activities would be almost unthinkable today without satellite technology. The space industry itself is relatively small compared to other manufacturing sectors, but its technological dynamism and strategic significance mean that it plays an ever more critical role in modern society.
This book assembles information on the space economy from a wide range of official and non-official sources. Together these paint a richly detailed picture of the space industry, its downstream services activities, and its wider economic and social impacts. Who are the main space-faring nations? How large are revenues and how much employment is there in the sector? How much R&D goes on, and where? What is the value of spin-offs from space spending? Answers to these and other questions are provided in this second OECD statistical overview of the emerging space economy.
A dynamic link (StatLink) is provided for graphs, which directs the user to a web page where the corresponding data are available in Excel® format.
Space launch activities worldwide
Ten countries have so far demonstrated independent orbital launch capabilities, and seven countries (i.e. the United States, the Russian Federation, China, Japan, India, Israel and Iran) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have operational launchers. More than 1 100 space launches took place between 1994 and 2010, with the Russian Federation and the United States leading. From a high of 89 in 1994, the rate declined in 2001 to an average of around 60 launches per year. Seventy successful space launches occurred worldwide in 2010 with 119 payloads onboard, although there were four rocket failures (India, Korea and the Russian Federation). The Russian Federation has launched more rockets than any other country every year since 2006 (Figure 10.1) and is planning to launch 50 more satellites in 2011 alone. Countries in Asia led by China (15 launches in 2010, like the United States) are gradually outdistancing Europe in terms of the number of launches and payloads (Figure 10.2)...