What are some lesser-known space programs around the world?

  • Thread starter Phobos
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In summary, China is poised to become a major player in the space industry, while Brazil is still struggling to regain their footing after several failed launches. Japan is one of the most successful space programs in the world, despite recent budgetary difficulties. India is also making progress with their moon mission.
  • #1
Phobos
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Just a "food for thought" topic…feel free to contibute further insights, opinions, expectations, etc. regarding other countries' space programs.

I've been curious lately about space programs other than those of the American, Russian, and European space agencies. It's interesting to see, given all the priorities and problems in the world, how important a space program remains and the hopes/desires that people invest into it. Certainly in the 50s/60s, space programs were a big political tool for the US/USSR...and the space programs from that timeframe continue to be inspirational to this day (re: technology & adventure). Some would say that it's human nature to chase this new frontier.

Brazil - After 3 consecutive launch failures (0 for 3), the last of which left 21 dead and 20 injured, Brazil is determined to press on with their space program in hopes of becoming an international commercial satellite launch center and becoming the first Latin American country to have a successful space program. Locals are hoping that the space program will revitalize the economy of the region.

China – This has been an exciting time for their program and they’re gearing up to send their first manned (Shenzhou) mission into orbit this year. ''Flying into space - and flying toward glory,'' they say. Shenzhou means “sacred vessel”. If they success, they would become the third country to launch manned missions (c’mon ESA!).

Note that Brazil & China developed their interests in space back in the 1970s (thanks Apollo!) but are just getting things rolling more recently.

India – In a space race with China, India announced this year that they intend to put a man on the moon sometime between 2005 and 2015. (Military applications of the rocket development is an obvious theme here.)

Japan – Has had many successful missions despite funding troubles (economic recession, little military backing) and difficulties identifying economic benefits. Rocket technology has been a point of pride for their program (demonstrating technical skills and their membership in the space club). Japan's ongoing first-mission-to-Mars mission is called Nozomi, or "Hope". If successful, the ongoing “Muses-C” mission will be the first to retrieve rock samples from an asteroid. Japan promises to have a peaceful space program, but did recently launch spy satellites due to North Korea’s nuclear & missile programs.
 
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  • #2
IIRC, Japan has two space programs, one quasi-governmental, the other tied to universities. In any case, much (most?) of the effort has been devoted to scientific probes, apart from the development of rockets (as Phobos already noted). At one point, the only functioning X-ray observatory was the Japanese ASCA (sp?).

Didn't Israel also put a satellite into orbit?

In addition to Phobos' list of countries engaged in independent development of the means to get to space, many institutions from many countries have developed/built/contracted for satellites. Not a few have been 'spy' satellites; several for communications, and one or two scientific.
 
  • #3
Latest news is that China may send up its first manned mission (14 Earth orbits) sometime this week!
 
  • #4
China launches manned spacecraft

And yes, it is a man; it'll be all over the news so plenty of folk will be posting I'm sure.

And now for something completely different ... the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China). We all know about the G7 - the biggest economies/leading industrial nations/etc - well, within less than 10 years, China's economy may overtake Germany's (making it #3 globally), and in 40 years, only the US and Japan may still be among the top 6 globally (the BRICs will comprise the other 4). Canada? Bad news for Mr Parsons I'm afraid; it's #7 in the G7, and really shouldn't be there at all.
 
  • #5
China's successful launch...
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/10/15/china.launch/index.html [Broken]
Good job, China. Go Yang Liwei!
Should be landing today at about 7 pm EDT.
 
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