Space Activities in 2014
Jonathan McDowell
planet4589@gmail.com
Definitional Challenges
Statistical reviews of space activity ask questions like ’which country has launched the most satellites
into space?’, in which every term (country, launch, satellite, space) is sufficiently problematic that
no two analysts will get the same answer. To break with tradition, I am putting front and center
what would normally be footnotes.
Challenge 1: Globalization Confusion
The tradition of characterizing space activity in terms of the nation-states performing that activity
goes back to Sputnik and the Cold War; it is still the standard today, but makes less and less
sense today when every aspect of each launch may involve organizations from multiple countries
and globalized organizations not strongly associated with any one country.
Some of the issues are addressed in my presentation on ’the Globalization of Space’ (http://planet4589.org/talks/global/global6.pdf)
and in my discussion of UN registration at http://planet4589.org/space/un/complicated.html
In 2014 the following specific issues are worth noting:
• The Antares 120 rocket is integrated in the USA and owned by a US company, but uses a
first stage built in Ukraine with a Russian engine. It is counted as a US rocket.
• The Ariane 5 rocket is a collaborative venture of W European industry, developed by the
European Space Agency and marketed by Arianespace, whose headquarters are in France. I
list Ariane launches as nominally French although really they are international in nature.
• The Zenit-3SL rocket is built in Ukraine and Russia and launched from a platform in inter-
national waters. However, it is integrated in Long Beach, California and launch services are
provided by a US subsidiary of the Russian ‘Energiya’ company. Its launches are allocated
to the US despite its non-American origin. In contrast, launches of the very similar Land
Launch Zenit-3SLB (not used in 2014) are allocated to Russia.
• The Soyuz ST-A and ST-B rockets are designed and manufactured in Russia but launched
from French Guiana under the aegis of the French-registered company Arianespace. These
launches are counted as French.
• The Tigrisat satellite was built by Iraqi students in Rome, funded by an Iraqi government
grant and under the auspices of the University of Rome ’La Sapienza’. Although press reports
and an official Iraqi government press release claimed this to be the first Iraqi satellite, it was
registered with the UN by Italy and appears to be owned by La Sapienza. Similarly, the
LambdaSat satellite built by a group of engineers of Greek heritage in the US was advertised
as a Greek satellite, but appears rather to be a US one.
• Globalized commercial satcom companies include EUTELSAT, based in France; Intelsat is
now formally based in Luxembourg but its satellites are registered by the US in the name of its
engineering headquarters Intelsat SA (US) in Washington, D.C. The O3b company is based
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