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Space Agencies

NASA      ESA      JAXA      RKA

NASA

Founding:

The Nasa, the USA’s Naitonal Aeronautics and Space Administration was founded on the first of October, in 1958, for civilian and military aerospace program.

Prequel:

The NASA born in the Cold War’s space race. The USA’s Military office supported the rocket technology and the upper-atmosphere flights since the early forties (20th century). President Eisenhower announced: he wants to orbit artificial moon between 1957.07.01. and 1958.12.31. in the International Year of Geophysics.

Developing, activities:

The early NASA had only 8000 employees and three labours with two rocket depots, and the budget was only 100 million USD. Then it assimilated the space establishments round the country, and they became the basics of the network known as NASA nowadays. It has 20,000 employees and the budget is 13.5 thousand million USD now.

The most important activities are the surveying of the planets, space physics and astronomy.

The results in planet surveying are fascinating: the NASA discovered the Solar system, the moons, apart from the Pluto and the Charon, penetrated to the Jupiter’s and Venus’s atmospheres, and landed on the Mars. The „Mars Exploration Rovers”, the „Mars Odyssey” and the „Mars Global Surveyor” are running now, and the Cassini satellite orbiting round the Saturn, and it is in details, to send more mars probes.

Important projects:

Mercury programme:

In the Mercury-project, six men got to the space, this is the first american space project. Important events:
• in 1961, Alan Sheppard did a space jump with the „Freedom 7” capsule
• 1962, John Glenn got to orbit with an Atlas-D rocket

Gemini programme:

In this project, 16 astronauts orbited like 600 times round the Earth. It was the continuing of the Mercury, and the prelude of the Apollo.

Apollo programme

It took 12 men to the space between 1969 and ’72. The most important event of the space travel till now: in 1969.06.20, the American Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin landed on the Moon with the Apollo-11.

Space Shuttle:

This spacecrafts were the first completely remain able transporters. Six space shuttles were built, and five got to the space. Since 1981, more than 100 flights had been done. In twenty years two ships destroyed: the Challenger in 1986 and the Columbia in 2003, but the project seems successfully. (See also: Tansporter Space ships)

Probes:

The probes took tools to the Solar system’s planets. The sent data is under processing, but we have interest notion about the Solar system born right away.

Satellites:

Surveying of the Earth has the longest past, because the first American satellite („Explorer-1”) served geophysical objects, and the results caused a breakthrough in this science with the Allen-zones’ revealing. The NASA developed the remote sensing and metrological satellite classes, which working decades ago. Lately years, the Earth’s approaching became as a system’s surveying. This searching named as the „Mission to the Earth”.

Future possibilities:

In the nineties, the NASA changed the strategy, and concentrating to small projects instead of big, attracting projects, and the new projects are going to answer these questions:
• How borned the Galaxy?
• Are there extraterrestrial life?
• What can the Human win with the space research?
This goal couldn’t be stopped by the Columbia’s tragedy, so the explorations will be started on the Jupiter’s moons and the Mars, because there were (or are) the water, necessary part of (terrestrial) life.
The goal is making faster, cheaper, and more effective the space researches, so the human missions are pushed to the background.

New plans:

The Vision for Space Exploration – advertised by President George W. Bush in the 14th of January, 2004 – contains the new American space researching projects, which will be accomplished by the NASA in the next decades. These are important part of taking human to the Moon and Mars.

ESA

Founding:

Founded in 1974, the full name is: European Space Agency, with the collaboration of many European states, to scout the space. The headquarter is in Paris, France. It has 1900 employees, and its budget will be nearly 3000 million Euros in 2006.

The rockets of the ESA (Ariane, Vega) launched from the French-Guiana, Kourou, which chosen, because it is near to the Equator. This is important, because the Earth’s gyration is the fastest in the Equator, so if we launch the rocket in east direction, less fuel is needed in the launching.

Developing, activities:

After the finishing of the space race between the Russians and the Americans in the seventies, the ESA could start its own developments, and they launched the IUE (International Ultra-Violet Explorer) co-operating with U.K. Science Research Council and NASA, and the IUE worked perfectly for 18 years. In 1983, they developed the „Spacelab”, which is the labour in the Space Shuttles. In 1986, the Giotto probe took shots about the Halley-comet. The Hubble Space Telescope was built in 1990, in the cooperation with the NASA, and the Hubble took wonderful shots till now. The Huygens probe launched in 1997, and moved to the Saturn’s biggest moon, the Titan still now, and made experiments and shots there. The SMART-1 (Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology) the first European Moon-probe, orbiting round the Moon since 2004, and tested the ion engines, and in 2005, the extended mission of it. In 2005 launched the Venus Express too, which is going to start orbiting round the Venus in the March of 2006. Apart form these; there are many satellites and probes launched by the ESA.

Important projects:

Horizon 2000:

The ESA’s long-range project, ratified in 1985. The project has four high priority missions, which tracing the technological destinations. Meanwhile there will be chosen low priority missions. In the project, several probes and astronomical satellites sent.

The four high priority missions:
1. XMM-Newton (X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission-Newton) (1999) taking X-ray astronomical satellites with three x-ray scope.
2. FIRST (Far Infrared and Submillimeter Telescope) (2007)
3. SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) (1995) and Cluster (2000)
4. Rosetta (2004)

The SOHO and the Cluster missions were cooperate with NASA.

Aurora:

In the Aurora project, the ESA is going to do the first human carried Mars-travel. The project started in 2001.

The plan:
2009 - The „ExoMars” probe on the Mars
2011 - 2014 - Taking material samples back from the Mars
2024 - Taking human to the Moon
2026 - Test fly to the Mars
2030 - 2033 - Taking human to the Mars

Future possibilities:

The Aurora project didn’t take tangible achievements, but we will hear about it much in the next decades. The plans are already, but the technology must improve, so the ESA’s technicians working on the problem. The Hopper transporter spaceship’s prototype („Phoenix – see also: Spaceships) is done success experiments right away.

The COF (Columbus Orbital Facility, Columbus) is going to be ISS’s European labour, and it is going to be launched in 2007.

It seems, we’ll live eventful future, if these projects are successful.

JAXA

Founding:

In the first of October, 2003, full name is the Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency, which consisting of three establishments: the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science (ISAS), the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL), a Japan’s NAtional Space Development Agency (NASDA). They took orbit satellites and they planning about asteroid researching, and human carried Moon-travel.

Developing, activities:

The JAXA wouldn’t have to start with the basics, so the improving of it was effective and fast. The NASDA were founded in 1969, and rockets, satellites, and the JEM (Japanese Experiment Module) on the ISS marks it.

Impotant projects:

Early H-IIA missions:

the JAXA’s first space project, they launching satellites with H-IIA rockets. There was one failure: in 2003 (11.29.) when they launched the IGS-Optical 2 and the IGS Radar 2.

Mission „Hayabusa” („Falcon”):

The Hayabusa unmanned spaceship is going to take back to the Earth material samples from the 25143 „Itokawa” asteroid. Since the launching (2005.05.09.) there were so many failures, so the samples probably won’t take back to 2007, but hopefully, the mission will be success for 2010.

Solar sail researching:

In 2004, the 9th of August, two solar sails took up, one in the altitude of 122 km and one in the altitude of 169 km.

X-ray astronomy:

The ASTRO-E II was launched in 2005, on the 10th of July, which searching for x-ray and gamma radiation, for supernovas and black holes.

OICETS and INDEX:

In 2005.08.24. the OICETS and INDEX satellites (Optical Inter-orbit Communications Engineering Test Satellite) were launched. The OICETS made optical contact from the distance of 400,000 km, on the 9th of December. The other satellite’s (INDEX) task is the observation of the aurora polaris (polar lights).

ALOS:

The ALOS (Advanced Land Observation Satellite, or „Daichi”) was launched on the 24th of January, 2006. The remote sensing satellite is going to take shots from three different angles, so a 3D shot can be made by the PRISM tool (Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping).

MTSAT-2:

The Multi-Functional Transport Satellite 2 launched in the 18th of February, 2006, and it makes safer the flights. It monitoring the distances between the planes and observing the weather.

Future possibilites:

The JAXA’s Moon-project contains the Lunar-A, which is going to impart penetratration to the Moon’s surface, and take a landing module to the Moon, while the carrier probe observing the Moon from its orbit.

The JEM is going to be the ISS’s Japanease module (see also: Space Stations – ISS)

The JAXA is in the „Bepi Colombo” project, it building one of the probes. The „Bepi Colombo” is the ESA’s first space project towards the Mercur.

RKA

Founding:

The Russian Federal Space Agency founded after the Soviet Union’s dissolution. The RKA’s headquarter is the „Starcity”, near to Moscow, where they doing everything, including the training of astronauts and simulation running.

Developing, activites:

This agency leads the manned and unmanned non-military flights. They are in the ISS project – in the Mir project, they gained much experience. The RKA launched many satellites and they launched the first space tourist too.

Important projects:

Rockets:

They developed many rockets, but the most famous is the R-7 („Soyuz”). The R-7 used not only as the booster rocket of the Soyuzes, but the Progresses too, because it can take up 7.5 cargos. The Proton rockets were developed in the sixties, but they’re used nowadays too, in the rearing of the Salyut, Mir, or ISS (the Zvezda and Zarya modules). Smaller Cosoms-3M rockets were used as the booster rockets of satellites, and they have more than 360 success flights.

Soyuz („Alliance”):

vide supra: Spaceships – Soyuz

International Space Station:

the RKA ensuring the backbone of this project: the Zarya-Zvezda modules, Soyuz-TMAs, the supporter Progresses, etc.

Future possibilities:

Although the RKA’s budget is small, they always starting new improvements, and took part in the most important projects. They took up Dennis Tito (Vide supra: Space tourists), who paid 20 million USD for this trip. It seems, this prize won’t change, because they need a little affix aside of the budget. The RKA is going to launch two new modules in the ISS project, the Multipurpose Laboratory Module and the Russian Research Module. A space ship („Klipper”) is in details, which can support six people.