Nations In Space

It’s easy to say that only two countries, the United States and the former Soviet Union, have been involved in space. Both of these countries get a lot of attention when they have a space mission underway. In addition to these two countries, many other nations working alone or in groups have contributed to the exploration of space.

Countries explore space for many reasons:

	Scientific experiments to improve life on Earth
	Military surveillance and spying
	Weather forecasting through satellites
	International broadcasting and communication
	Nuclear weapons monitoring
	National pride in technological advances

During the early age of space exploration, the United States and the Soviet Union began what is now called "the space race". National pride centered on the country that was able to be the first to complete important space milestones such as first satellite, first man in orbit, and first to land on the Moon. Both governments spent billions of dollars to beat their opponent. The people in the countries were very interested in the race and were excited at their nation’s results. Check out our website for details on the space activities of these two countries.

While the United States and the Soviet Union were concentrating on both manned and unmanned flights, other countries were developing their own space programs. A group of European countries joined together in 1975 to form the European Space Agency(ESA). The ESA currently has 14 members(Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom). This group uses an Ariane rocket to launch missions for commercial and scientific purposes. The European Space Agency has recorded many space achievements. In 1985, the ESA launched Giotto which completed a close fly-by of Halley’s Comet. This was the first European deep space mission. Plans are currently underway for the Rosetta mission which will study the comet Wirtanen. Probes to Mercury(BepiColombo) and Mars(Mars Express) are in development.

The European Space Agency often operates programs jointly with other agencies. For instance, ESA and the United States’ space agency, NASA, are working together on the Hubble Space Telescope, the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn, and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory(SOHO) which will study the Sun. The ESA and the Russian Space Agency cooperated on the EuroMIR mission which occurred during 1995-1996.

In addition, the nations that make up the ESA develop their own projects that meet their country’s objectives.

The Chinese have been involved in space since the 1960,s. China has launched satellites for many countries, including Australia, Pakistan, and the Philippines. In July, 1999, space experts who follow China’s program speculated that China was trying to develop a manned space program. This was confirmed in November, 1999, when China successfully launched a spacecraft that is designed to carry astronauts. Although this mission was unmanned, it shows that China’s manned program is proceeding. The Chinese government confirmed the successful test but gave no schedule for future missions. Some space experts think China may have a manned flight in the year 2000.

India has also been active in space. The country has developed satellites for telecommunications, meteorology, and television broadcasting. India has also developed launch vehicles.

Canada has a long history in space and was the third country to design and build its own satellite. Its Remote Manipulator system(Canadarm) has been used on Shuttle missions to deploy and retrieve satellites. Currently, Canada is contributing a robotic system to the International Space Station(ISS). Many Canadian astronauts have flown on Shuttle missions.

Our chart below provides a sample of the space activities from some of the world’s nations. These countries have more space interests than we can possible list. Also many other countries are very involved in space. You can check out these space efforts by going to the web sites for each country. Space exploration is always changing and always exciting!