Since the days of the Apollo program, most of NASA’s manned exploration activities beyond LEO have used what could be called a ‘mission’ based approach. This approach requires that the astronauts take all of the resources required for the mission from Earth, at great expense and difficulty, while providing little (if any) infrastructure for future [...]
Concepts for relieving the terrible mass-fraction penalties of launching out of Earth’s gravity well by re-fueling spacecraft on-orbit have been proposed for decades (Reference 1). Certainly it makes theoretical sense to avoid carrying all needed mission propellants (as well as other vital fluids and/or gases) from liftoff to the final orbit by ‘topping off’ at [...]
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin's flight into space in April 1961 turned a hitherto unknown Soviet Air Force officer into a hero around the world. Upon his death in March 1968 he became an icon, his image forever frozen. Since then, the date of his flight has been celebrated in the Soviet Union and its successors as [...]
The current crisis in American human spaceflight has generated a great deal of concern and confusion in the general public, as well as in the aerospace sector, regarding booster systems, how they are developed, and what might be the best path forward for the United States and the rest of the world. While there is [...]
The purpose of this chapter is to explore how European Satellite Communications (SatCom) policy can accelerate African development. One of the current European policy priorities is the Digital Agenda, with the ambition to bring broadband to every European citizen by 2013. This policy initiative promotes European growth as smart, sustainable and inclusive. The targets of [...]
Throughout history, trade routes have emerged to serve those pursuing commerce in all its many forms, from the recovery of value from natural resources, to tourism, to manufacturing and agriculture, to migration and exploration. Specialized markets, or niche markets, inevitably develop along trade routes to take advantage of specific conditions and to meet the specific [...]
Commercial spaceports are launch facilities dedicated to serving the needs of the commercial launch industry. The need to move beyond the restrictions and costs of using government facilities was the key driver in the emergence of the industry, and it came about as a result of the gradual commercialization of space launch starting in the [...]
Most sectors requiring a relatively high upfront investment have started off as public, often military funded projects. A typical example is the development of the commercial aeronautical sector with some similarities but also important differences compared to the space sector. Starting with early flights in 1897 performed by Clement Adler (but kept secret due to [...]
The choices between international cooperation and competition, and finding the right balance between the two, has been a major concern of space diplomats and leaders in Asia, Europe, and North America for much of the last few decades. Debate in policy circles has revolved around questions of cooperation, and whether collective assurance or independence is [...]
Numerous examples of international cooperation among well-established spacefaring states have emerged over the last several decades. Although the prime example may be the International Space Station, other missions are similarly worthy of mention: Cassini-Huygens, Chandrayan 1, Hayabusa, and literally every mission launched by the European Space Agency. As a result of such cooperation our knowledge [...]