Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Development Team
Principal Investigator Prof. R.K. Kohli
& Prof. V.K. Garg & Prof. Ashok Dhawan
Co- Principal Investigator Central University of Punjab, Bathinda
Dr. Puneeta Pandey
Assistant Professor
Paper Coordinator
Centre for Environmental Sciences and Technology
Central University of Punjab, Bathinda
Dr. Puneeta Pandey
Assistant Professor
Content Writer
Centre for Environmental Sciences and Technology
Central University of Punjab, Bathinda
Content Reviewer
Module Id EVS/RSGIS-EVS/3
Objectives To familiarize the students with the space agencies in the world
1. Learning Objectives
The purpose of this module is to familiarize the reader with the space agencies in different countries
across the world, the mission of these agencies and their achievements.
2. Introduction
Presently, about 70 different space agencies exist in different countries that are owned by Government.
Out of these 70 agencies, six government space agencies have satellite launch and recovery facilities.
These include National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Russian Federal Space Agency
(RFSA or Roscosmos), European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA),
China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Further,
out of these six agencies, RFSA, CNSA and NASA are capable of human spaceflight currently.
Figure 1: NASA
Some of the major space flight projects of NASA are as follows:
3.1.3 Mission Europa: NASA's planned mission would conduct detailed reconnaissance of Jupiter's
moon to investigate the possibility of sustenance of life.
3.1.6 Landsat 9
Landsat 9 follows Landsat 8, with the mission of monitoring the natural resources on earth’s surface. It
is a result of joint partnership between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Russian Federal Space Agency or RosCosmos State Corporation is the space agency of Russia that
was founded in February 25, 1992 and is headquartered in Moscow. RosCosmos is responsible for the
space science program of Russia and aerospace research. Some famous projects of RosCosmos are
Soyuz manned spacecraft, Salyut 1 space station and Lunokhod 1 space rover.
European Space Agency (ESA), established in 1975, is an Inter-Governmental space agency under 20
European nations with United Kingdom (UK) being the largest contributor. The main activities
include exploration to another planets, human spaceflight, science, earth observation,
telecommunication, etc. The main accomplishments of ESA are:
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is Japan’s national aerospace agency that was established in
2003 and headquartered in Chofu (Tokyo). It is responsible for technology development, research
works, launch of a satellite into the orbit, asteroid data, moon exploration and many other advanced
missions. Agency’s main motto is ‘Reaching for the skies’. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is
also planning to launch Human Space Program and developing the Reusable launch Vehicles. Some of
the Earth’s observation projects are as follows:
Canadian Space Agency is Canadian government body founded on March 1, 1989. The headquarters
of the CSA is located at the John H. Chapman Space Centre in Longueuil, Quebec. The mandate of the
Canadian Space Agency is to promote the peaceful use of space and develop its own indigenous
rockets and launch vehicle.
Major activities:
CNSA does regular launches with its Long March series of rockets sending various satellites
into space.
In 2005, Shenzhou 6 launched with the first two-person Chinese crew to explore the capability
of life-support systems of Shenzhou.
The next mission, Shenzhou 7, featured the first Chinese spacewalk by Zhai Zhigang on Sept.
27, 2008.
CNSA's one-room space station, Tiangong 1, was launched in September 2011 and underwent
two robotic dockings with the unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft that November.
The crews of Shenzhou 9 and Shenzhou 10 made their own manned dockings to Tiangong 1 in
2012 and 2013, respectively.
Chinese Lunar Exploration Programme (CNEP) is one of the major programmes of CNSA.
The agency succeeded in making the first soft landing on the moon in December 2014 with its
Chang'e 3 lander and its rover, Yutu.
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The International Space Science Institute (ISSI) is a nonprofit organisation, an Institute of Advanced
Study established in 1995 at Bern, Switzerland. The main focus of this institute is on earth and
planetary sciences, cosmology, astrophysics and Astrobiology; based on multi-disciplinary research,
space missions, ground based observations and laboratory experiments. The institute is under a
foundation of Swiss law and supported by European Space Agency (ESA).
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4.Conclusions
At the end of this module, the reader would have gained an insight into some of the space agencies
working in the field of artificial satellites, launch vehicles, carriers and other domains of aerospace
technology in the world. This module is meant to acquaint the reader with these space agencies; and
the knowledge base can be extended further to other space agencies of the world. The Indian space
agency, namely, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka;
shall be dealt elsewhere.
References
http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/gcom_c/topics.html#topics6981
http://ssi.org/about/
http://techimos.com/top-10-space-agencies-in-the-world-2017/
http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/default-eo.asp
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Mars500/Mars500_study_overview
http://www.iafastro.org/societes/iranian-space-agency/
http://www.issibern.ch/
http://www.nst.re.kr/nst_en/member/03_21.jsp
http://www.rankred.com/top-10-space-research-organisations-world/
http://www.space.com/22743-china-national-space-administration.html
http://www.space.gov.il/en/
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/
https://www.geoinformation.com/GeoInformation-dir/korea-aerospace-research/
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ivv/services/ivvprojects_current.html
https://www.nasa.gov/europa/
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/overview/index.html
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/angara.html
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