Space organisations Introduction ESA NASA RSSI CNSA ISRO NASDA Other organisations Space organisations: Around the world, there are many organisations which are devoted to developing technologies for space faring craft such as rockets, satellites, space probes and manned space vehicles. Among these organisations, some are government funded and owned, developing technologies to be used by that particular nation for military, political or scientific purposes. There are quite a few countries that are capable of launching satellites into space independently but there are also collaborative groups of countries which each chip in a bit of money in order for the organisation to conduct its own research and development for the next frontier - SPACE. There are, of course, privately owned companies which do not send humans into space, but rather making satellites and near-space fliers. The only three countries which have independently developed programmes for human space flight, of which are successful, are the countries Russia (former USSR), the United States and the People’s Republic of China. Countries such as Japan and India have successfully sent satellites into space. Japan has even launched a probe to Mars to scan it for a magnetic field, though the probe was recently (late 2003) lost on the journey. An organisation called the European Space Agency is an organisation consisting of more or less 15 counties, mostly around Europe. It has conducted numerous successful missions, which range from sending probes to Mars to research on aspects of the solar system. European space agency (ESA): The European Space Agency (ESA) was established in July 1973 when was merged from the organisations; European Space Research Organisation and the European Launcher Development Organisation. Beginning its operations in 1975, its purpose was to develop space research technology through the cooperation of European countries in this area. The 15 members of the ESA are as follows: Austria Belgium Denmark France Finland Germany Republic of Ireland Italy The Netherlands Norway Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom Even though it is not on the list, Canada may sometimes take part in ESA operations. ESA’s headquarters is in Paris though major facilities exist in many nations including the launch pad which is in Kourou, French Guiana on the Atlantic coat of South America. Projects- a brief: The ESA developed Spacelab, a compartment designed to be fitted into the NASA space shuttle’s cargo bay so that experiments may be undertaken in it, first flown on the Shuttle’s ninth mission in 1983. In 1985 ESA launched the Giotto space probe to Halley’s Comet, later taking part in the development of the Hubble Space Telescope which was launched in 1990. In 1989 the European Centre of Space Law was founded by the ESA. Other major spacecraft developed by the agency include the Huygens probe that journeyed to one of Saturn’s moon called Titan, the XMM-Newton orbiting X-ray observatory, the Mars Express mission and the collaborative project with Canada, Japan, Russia and the US in the International Space Station project. http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/index.html National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): NASA is an agency of the United States government which was established in 1958, the functions of which were specified to be to direct and conduct all US aeronautical and space activities except for those that are chiefly military (which is controlled by the USAF). NASA has played an important role with the Russian space agency (and the former USSR) in the past and now the present to shape the development of space faring expertise, a well as pioneering a new technologies. Projects-a brief: NASA was the second country, following closely to the former USSR, to send humans into space with independently developed space craft. Following the intense competition of the space programmes between the US and the USSR in the cold war, NASA placed the first men on the moon with the Apollo Programme and took numerous images of the planets with many space probes including the vastly successful voyager probes. The Hubble Space Telescope developed in co-operation with the United Kingdom has brought with it a wealth of spectacular pictures of the stars and galaxies, teaching humanity more about the vastness and grandeur of space. Recently NASA has sent the Mars Odyssey to Mars but after the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy, operations have slowed down. www.nasa.gov/ Russian Aviation and Space Agency (former USSR): During the Soviet era, the government poured large amounts of money into research and development of a variety of fields, including space science and technology. The space programme was tightly integrated with the government and was very successful in its early years. During its later years, the Russian Government could no longer fund the space programme to operate independently (from the rest of the world) so the Mir space station (with its history of 1600 breakdowns) was finally brought into the atmosphere and so burnt up. The country is now committed to building the International Space Station. Projects- a brief: The USSR/Russia was the first country to send a human into space, with the launch of Yury Gagarin in Vostok 1 in 1961. Planets visited by space probes include Venus, Mars and the moon. Recent projects consist of Russia participating in the International Space Station construction, and with the suspension of United States space shuttle missions (due to the re-evaluation of the space shuttle design following the Columbia tragedy) the responsibility rests with Russia to transport crew to the ISS. http://www.rosaviakosmos.ru/ http://www.rosaviakosmos.ru/english/eindex.htm China National Space Administration (CNSA): The China National Space Administration is an institution set up by the Chinese government that is designed to be in charge of the national space policies (of China) and to manage the national space science, technology and industry. It has signed agreements with Brazil, Chile, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries on the question of space cooperation. Already, the CNSA have sent a human into space; the third such country to ever do so independently and has launched numerous satellites into orbit. http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/main_e.asp Indian space research organisation (ISRO): The Indian space research organisation was established by the Indian government in June 1972. The organisation’s objective is to developing satellites, launch vehicles, sounding rockets and associated ground systems. The ISRO have already launched many satellites consisting of telecommunications, meteorological and disaster warning, resource monitoring, scientific satellites as well as developing launch vehicles. The ISRO provides aid to other space agencies in the world in the form of training, personnel and various other ways. http://www.isro.org/ National Space Development Agency (NASDA)(Japan): The Japanese government established the National Space Development Agency on October 1st, 1969 to act so as to develop technologies for space. Accomplishments of NASDA includes the development of rockets, satellites, performing space experiments, collaborating with other space organisations to send their own astronauts into space and even attempted sending a probe to Mars; a mission which ended in failure after the probe failed to correct its path deviation. http://www.nasda.go.jp/projects/project-viewer/index_e.html International space organisations Brazil- National Institute for Space Research (INPE)    http://www.inpe.br/ Canada- Canadian Space Agency (CSA)    http://www.space.gc.ca/ China- China National Space Administration    http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/main_e.asp Denmark- Danish Space Research Institute    http://dsri.dk/ Europe- European Space Industry Directory (ESID)    http://www.esidirectory.org/ Europe- European Space Agency (ESA)    http://www.esrin.esa.it/ France- Centre Nationale d' Etudes Spatiales (CNES)    http://www.cnes.fr/ France- Centre d'Études et de Recherches de Toulouse (CERT)    http://www.cert.fr/ Germany- German Aerospace Establishment (DLR)    http://www.dlr.de/ Italy- Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI)    http://www.asi.it/ Japan- National Space Development Agency (NASDA)    http://hdsn.eoc.nasda.go.jp/ Netherlands- National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR)    http://www.nlr.nl/ Norway- Norwegian Space Centre    http://www.spacecentre.no/ Poland- Space Research Centre (SRC)    http://www.cbk.waw.pl/ Sweden- Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF)    http://www.irf.se/ Russian- Federation Russian Space Science Internet (RSSI)    http://www.rssi.ru/ UK- British National Space Centre    http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/ USA- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)    http://www.nasa.gov/ Links source:  http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/main_e.asp