Launch-capable countries
This list includes countries with an independent capability to place satellites in orbit, including production of the necessary launch vehicle. Note: many more countries have the capability to design and build satellites — which relatively speaking, does not require much economic, scientific and industrial capacity — but are unable to launch them, instead relying on foreign launch services. This list does not consider those numerous countries, but only lists those capable of launching satellites indigenously, and the date this capability was first demonstrated. Does not include consortium satellites or multi-national satellites.
Order  | Country | Year of first launch | Rocket | Satellite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soviet Union | 1957 | Sputnik-PS | Sputnik 1 |
| 2 | United States | 1958 | Juno I | Explorer 1 |
| 3 | France | 1965 | Diamant | Astérix |
| 4 | Japan | 1970 | Lambda-4S | Ōsumi |
| 5 | China | 1970 | Long March 1 | Dong Fang Hong I |
| 6 | United Kingdom | 1971 | Black Arrow | Prospero X-3 |
| 7 | India | 1980 | SLV | Rohini |
| 8 | Israel | 1988 | Shavit | Ofeq 1 |
| - | Russia[1] | 1992 | Soyuz-U | Kosmos 2175 |
| - | Ukraine[1] | 1992 | Tsyklon-3 | Strela (x3, Russian) |
| 9 | Iran | 2009 | Safir-2 | Omid |
Notes
- Russia and Ukraine were parts of the Soviet Union and thus inherited their launch capability without the need to develop it indigenously. Through Soviet Union they also are on the number one position in this list of accomplishments.
- France, United Kingdom launched their first satellites by own launchers from foreign spaceports.
- North Korea (1998) and Iraq (1989) have claimed orbital launches (satellite and warhead accordingly), but these claims are unconfirmed.
- In addition to the above, countries such as South Africa, Spain, Italy, Germany, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Egypt and private companies such as OTRAG, have developed their own launchers, but have not had a successful launch.
- As of 2009, only eight countries from the list above ( Russia and Ukraine instead of USSR, also USA, Japan, China, India, Israel, and Iran) and one regional organization (the European Space Agency, ESA) have independently launched satellites on their own indigenously developed launch vehicles. (The launch capabilities of the United Kingdom and France now fall under the ESA.)
- Several other countries, including South Korea, Brazil, Pakistan, Romania, Taiwan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Australia, Malaysia[citation needed] and Turkey, are at various stages of development of their own small-scale launcher capabilities.
- South Korea launched a KSLV rocket (created with assistance of Russia) in 25 August 2009, but it failed to put satellite STSAT-2 into precise orbit and the satellite did not start to function.
- North Korea claimed a launch in April 2009, but U.S. and South Korean defense officials and weapons experts later reported that the rocket failed to send a satellite into orbit, if that was the goal. United States, Japan and South Korea believe this was actually a ballistic missile test, which is a claim also made after North Korea's 1998 satellite launch, and later rejected.
Launch capable private entities
On September 28, 2008, the private aerospace firm SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 1 rocket in to orbit. This marked the first time that a privately built liquid-fueled booster was able to reach orbit.The rocket carried a prism shaped 1.5 m (5 ft) long payload mass simulator that was set into orbit. The dummy satellite, known as Ratsat, will remain in orbit for between five and ten years before burning up in the atmosphere.
First satellites of countries
While Canada was the third country to build a satellite which was launched into space, it was launched aboard a U.S. rocket from a U.S. spaceport. The same goes for Australia, who launched on-board a donated Redstone rocket. The first Italian-launched was San Marco 1, launched on 15 December 1964 on a U.S. Scout rocket from Wallops Island (VA,USA) with an Italian Launch Team trained by NASA. Australia's launch project (WRESAT) involved a donated U.S. missile and U. S. support staff as well as a joint launch facility with the United Kingdom.
Attacks on satellites
In recent times satellites have been hacked by militant organizations to broadcast propaganda and to pilfer classified information from military communication networks.
Satellites in low earth orbit have been destroyed by ballistic missiles launched from earth. Russia, the United States and China have demonstrated the ability to eliminate satellites.In 2007 the Chinese military shot down an aging weather satellite, followed by the US Navy shooting down a defunct spy satellite in February 2008.
Jamming
Due to the low received signal strength of satellite transmissions they are prone to jamming by land-based transmitters. Such jamming is limited to the geographical area within the transmitter's range. GPS satellites are potential targets for jamming, but satellite phone and television signals have also been subjected to jamming. It is trivial to transmit a carrier to a geostationary satellite and thus interfere with any other users of the transponder. It is common on commercial satellite space for earth stations to transmit at the wrong time or on the wrong frequency and dual illuminate the transponder rendering the frequency unusable. Satellite operators now have sophisticated monitoring that enables them to pin point the source of any carrier and manage the transponder space effectively.
No comments:
Post a Comment