Encyclopedia Astronautica
Index

Afghanistan.

Afghanistan

Algeria.

France conducted numerous space and missile launches from Algerian territory from 1947-1967. These facilities were abandoned as a condition of the agreement ending the Algerian Civil War. Algeria did not take concrete steps to return to space until the 1990's, when the decision was taken to participate in an international constellation of disaster-monitoring satellites.

Antarctica.

Antarctica

Arab States.

Arab States

Argentina.

The Argentine Interplanetary Society was organized in the 1940's. In 1952 Argentina was one of the founding members of the International Astronautical Federation. From 1960 the Comision Nacional de Investigaciones Espaciales (CNIE) worked with the Argentine Air Force's Instituto de Investigaciones Aeronauticas y Espaciales (IIAE) to develop indigenous sounding rockets and missiles. Argentina was the first country in Latin America to send an object into space using an indigenously-developed rocket. In the 1980's Argentina took part in a multinational effort to develop the Condor intermediate range missile. Under American pressure, the Condor Program was canceled in 1991, the IIAE and CNIE were dismantled, and further work on launch vehicles was banned. A new civilian space agency, CONAE was created, which concentrated on development of surveillance satellites for earth resource and environmental monitoring.

Armenia.

Armenia

Australia.

Australia

Austria.

Austria

Azerbaijan.

In Soviet times, Lakian cosmonaut Musa Khiramanovich Manarov, born in Baku, spent over 541 days in space. Space activities are currently operated within Azerbaijan by the Azerbaijan National Aerospace Agency (ANASA). Their activities have mainly involved work with UN agencies to utilize space imagery for land resources mapping and disaster monitoring.

Bahamas.

Bahamas

Barbados.

Barbados became involved as a bridgehead to space as the site for Gerald Bull's development of gun-boosted sounding rocket and satelite launchers in the 1960's. The facilities and modified artillery pieces he built still stand today, rusting, their original purpose a mystery to local residents.

Belarus.

Belarus

Belgium.

Belgium

Belize.

Belize

Bermuda.

Bermuda

Brazil.

Brazil

Bulgaria.

Bulgaria

Cameroon.

Cameroon

Canada.

Canada

Chile.

Chile

China.

China

Colombia.

Colombia

Congo.

Congo

Cook Islands.

Cook Islands

Costa Rica.

Costa Rica

Cuba.

Cuba

Czech Republic.

Czech Republic

Denmark.

Denmark

Egypt.

Egypt

Estonia.

Estonia

Europe.

Europe

France.

France

Georgia.

Georgia

Germany.

Germany

Greece.

Greece

Greenland.

Greenland

Hungary.

Hungary

Iceland.

Iceland

India.

India

Indonesia.

Indonesia

International.

International

Iran.

Iran, following a thirty year effort to acquire foreign technology however possible, launched its first satellite in 2009.

Iraq.

Iraq

Ireland.

Ireland

Israel.

Israel

Italy.

Italy

Japan.

Japan

Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan

Kenya.

Kenya

Korea.

Korea

Korea North.

Korea North

Korea South.

South Korea became familiar with large-scale rocketry through maintenance and modification activities on American-supplied Honest John and Nike Hercules tactical missiles. By the 1990's Korea had developed an independent capability to manufacture solid propellant rocket motors of up to one tonne mass. In 1990 KARI was funded to build the first indigenous sounding rockets, flown as the KSR-I and KSR-II. In December 1997 KARI was allowed to proceed with development of liquid oxygen/kerosene rocket motor for an orbital launcher, but this was abandoned when the South Korean government decided it wanted to be among the top ten spacefaring nations by 2015. The existing program was too limited in growth potential to allow that. Therefore it was decided to leapfrog the technology by contracting with Russian companies. First launch of the KSLV-I launch vehicle from the new space centre took place in 2010.

Kyrgyzstan.