1.
European Space Operations Centre
–
The European Space Operations Centre serves as the main mission control centre for the European Space Agency and is located in Darmstadt, Germany. ESOCs primary function is the operation of unmanned spacecraft on behalf of ESA, ESOC is responsible for developing, operating and maintaining ESAs European Tracking Network of ground stations. The core network comprises 9 stations in seven countries, Kourou, Maspalomas, Villafranca and Cebreros, Redu, Santa Maria, Kiruna, Malargüe, operators are on duty at ESOC24 hours/day, year round, to conduct tracking passes, uploading telecommands and downloading telemetry and data. In addition to pure mission operations, a number of activities take place at the Centre. Flight dynamics, A team is responsible for all orbital calculations and its role was to provide satellite control for the European Space Research Organisation, which is today known as its successor organisation, the European Space Agency. These were augmented by mission control staff transferred from ESTEC to operate satellites and manage the ESTRACK tracking station network. Within just eight months, ESOC, as part of ESRO, was operating its first mission, ESRO-2B, a scientific research satellite and the first of many operated from ESOC for ESRO. By July 2012, ESOC had operated over 56 missions spanning science, Earth observation, orbiting observatories, meteorology, ESOC is located on the west side of the city of Darmstadt, some 500 m from the main train station, at Robert-Bosch-Straße 5. In 2011, ESA announced the first phase of the ESOC II modernisation and expansion project valued at €60 million, the new construction will be located across Robert-Bosch-Straße, opposite the current centre. At ESOC, ESA employs approximately 800, comprising some 250 permanent staff, staff from ESOC are routinely dispatched to work at other ESA establishments, ESTRACK stations, the ATV Control Centre, the Columbus Control Centre and at partner facilities in several countries
2.
European Space Agency
–
The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states, dedicated to the exploration of space. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a staff of about 2,000. The main European launch vehicle Ariane 5 is operated through Arianespace with ESA sharing in the costs of launching, after World War II, many European scientists left Western Europe in order to work with the United States. The meeting was attended by representatives from eight countries, including Harrie Massey. The Western European nations decided to have two different agencies, one concerned with developing a system, ELDO, and the precursor of the European Space Agency. The latter was established on 20 March 1964 by an agreement signed on 14 June 1962, from 1968 to 1972, ESRO launched seven research satellites. ESA in its current form was founded with the ESA Convention in 1975, ESA has 10 founding member states, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. These signed the ESA Convention in 1975 and deposited the instruments of ratification by 1980, during this interval the agency functioned in a de facto fashion. ESA launched its first major scientific mission in 1975, Cos-B, ESA joined NASA in the IUE, the worlds first high-orbit telescope, which was launched in 1978 and operated very successfully for 18 years. A number of successful Earth-orbit projects followed, and in 1986 ESA began Giotto, its first deep-space mission, to study the comets Halley and Grigg–Skjellerup. Hipparcos, a mission, was launched in 1989 and in the 1990s SOHO, Ulysses. Recent scientific missions in co-operation with NASA include the Cassini–Huygens space probe, as the successor of ELDO, ESA has also constructed rockets for scientific and commercial payloads. Ariane 1, launched in 1979, brought mostly commercial payloads into orbit from 1984 onward, the successor launch vehicle of Ariane 5, the Ariane 6 is already in the definition stage and is envisioned to enter service in the 2020s. The beginning of the new millennium saw ESA become, along with agencies like NASA, JAXA, ISRO, CSA and Roscosmos, one of the major participants in scientific space research. Although ESA had relied on co-operation with NASA in previous decades, especially the 1990s, changed circumstances led to decisions to rely more on itself, a 2011 press issue thus stated, Russia is ESAs first partner in its efforts to ensure long-term access to space. ESA maintains its scientific and research projects mainly for astronomy-space missions such as Corot, launched on 27 December 2006 and this is the reason space exploration is an integral part of overall space activities. It has always been so, and it will be more important in the future. ESA describes its work in two overlapping ways, For the general public the various fields of work are described as Activities, Member states participate to varying degrees in the mandatory and optional space programmes
3.
NASA Deep Space Network
–
It also performs radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe, and supports selected Earth-orbiting missions. DSN is part of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, similar networks are run by Europe, Russia, China, India, and Japan. DSN currently consists of three deep-space communications facilities placed approximately 120 degrees apart around the Earth and they are, the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex outside Barstow, California. Each facility is situated in semi-mountainous, bowl-shaped terrain to shield against radio frequency interference. All DSN antennas are steerable, high-gain, parabolic reflector antennas, the antennas and data delivery systems make it possible to, acquire telemetry data from spacecraft. Perform Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations, measure variations in radio waves for radio science experiments. Monitor and control the performance of the network, the antennas at all three DSN Complexes communicate directly with the Deep Space Operations Center located at the JPL facilities in Pasadena, California. In the early years, the control center did not have a permanent facility. It was a setup with numerous desks and phones installed in a large room near the computers used to calculate orbits. In July 1961, NASA started the construction of the permanent facility, the facility was completed in October 1963 and dedicated on May 14,1964. In the initial setup of the SFOF, there were 31 consoles,100 closed-circuit television cameras, currently, the operations center personnel at SFOF monitor and direct operations, and oversee the quality of spacecraft telemetry and navigation data delivered to network users. Tracking vehicles in space is quite different from tracking missions in low Earth orbit. Deep space missions are visible for long periods of time from a portion of the Earths surface. These few stations, however, require huge antennas, ultra-sensitive receivers, Deep space is defined in several different ways. According to a 1975 NASA report, the DSN was designed to communicate with spacecraft traveling approximately 16,000 km from Earth to the farthest planets of the solar system. JPL diagrams state that at an altitude of 30,000 km and this definition means that missions to the Moon, and the Earth–Sun Lagrangian points L1 and L2, are considered near space and cannot use the ITUs deep space bands. Other Lagrangian points may or may not be subject to rule due to distance. NASA was officially established on October 1,1958, to consolidate the separately developing space-exploration programs of the US Army, US Navy, the DSN was given responsibility for its own research, development, and operation in support of all of its users
4.
Guiana Space Centre
–
The Guiana Space Centre or, more commonly, Centre Spatial Guyanais is a French and European spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana. The European Space Agency, the French space agency CNES, and this was the spaceport used by the ESA to send supplies to the International Space Station using the Automated Transfer Vehicle. The location was selected in 1964 to become the spaceport of France, in 1975, France offered to share Kourou with ESA. Commercial launches are bought also by non-European companies, ESA pays two thirds of the spaceports annual budget and has also financed the upgrades made during the development of the Ariane launchers. Since April 4,2017, the centre has been occupied by 30 labor union leaders in the midst of the 2017 social unrest in French Guiana, Kourou is located approximately 500 kilometres north of the equator, at a latitude of 5°10. The near-equatorial launch location provides an advantage for launches to low-inclination Earth orbits compared to launches from spaceports at higher latitude, the proximity to the equator also makes maneuvering satellites for geosynchronous orbits simpler and less costly. Originally built in the 1960s under the name of CECLES, the ELV pad located at 5. 236°N52. 775°W /5.236, one Europa-II was launched from the site, before the programme was cancelled. The pad was demolished, and subsequently rebuilt as the first launch complex for Ariane rockets, renamed ELA, it was used for Ariane 1 and Ariane 2 and 3 launches until being retired in 1989. It was again refurbished for the Vega with the first launch performed on 13 February 2012, the ELA2 pad, located at 5. 232°N52. 776°W /5.232, -52.776 had been used for Ariane 4 launches until 2003. ELA3 has been active for Ariane 5 launches since 1996 and this facility is located at 5. 239°N52. 768°W /5.239, -52.768 and covers an area of 21 square kilometres. ESA has built ELS at 5. 305°N52. 834°W /5.305, the first Soyuz launch from ELS was postponed several times, but launched on October 21,2011. ELS is located on the territory of Sinnamary commune,27 km from Kourou harbor and it is 10 km north of the site used for the Ariane 5 launches. Russia will use the Guiana Space Centre in addition to Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Guiana location has the significant benefit of greatly increased payload capability, owing to the near equatorial position. A Soyuz rocket with a 1.7 tonnes to geostationary transfer orbit performance from Baikonur, the ELS project is being co-funded by Arianespace, ESA, and the European Union, with CNES being the prime contractor. The project has a projected cost of approximately €320 million, where €120 million are allocated for modernizing the Soyuz vehicle, the official opening of the launch site construction occurred on 27 February 2007. Excavation work however, had begun several months beforehand. By October 2010,18 launch contracts had been signed, Arianespace has ordered 24 launchers from Russian industry. On October 21,2011, two Galileo IOV-1 & IOV-2 satellites were launched using a Soyuz-ST rocket, in the first Russian Soyuz vehicle ever launched from Europes Spaceport in French Guiana, astrium assembles each Ariane 5 launcher in the Launcher Integration Building
5.
Svalbard Satellite Station
–
Svalbard Satellite Station or SvalSat is a satellite ground station located on Platåberget near Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway. Opened in 1997, it is operated by Kongsberg Satellite Services, SvalSat and KSATs Troll Satellite Station in Antarctica are the only ground stations that can see a low altitude polar orbiting satellite on every revolution as the earth rotates. The facility consists of 31 multi-mission and customer-dedicated antennas which operate in the C, L, S and X bands, the station provides ground services to more satellites than any other facility in the world. The station also reads and distributes data from the Japanese Hinode solar research satellite, the facility has seen a large increase in smaller customers after 2004, when the Svalbard Undersea Cable System started providing a fiber Internet connection. Concessions for downloading are only issued to civilian satellites, yet some data has been used by armed forces. There is a disagreement as to whether this constitutes a breach of the Svalbard Treaty, the European Space Research Organization established Kongsfjord Telemetry Station in Ny-Ålesund as one of its four initial European Space Tracking Network stations. The facility remained in use from 1967 to 1974, but was closed as it was not suitable for ESROs second generation of satellites, in the 1990s, NSC operated Tromsø Satellite Station, which was used as a ground station for a limited number of satellites. After Rolf Skår was appointed director of NSC, plans were launched to try to win the ground station contract for NASAs planned Earth Observing System, NASA was considering locating the ground station in Greenland, at McMurdo Station in Antarctica or at Esrange in Sweden. Skår invited a NASA delegation to visit Svalbard, and from 1996 NSC, Svalbard was chosen because of its high latitude from which every polar-orbiting satellite above 500 kilometers can be seen on every revolution as the earth rotates within its orbital plane. For the EOS program, Svalbard was supplemented by Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, construction of the road up to Platåberget started in 1996 and a relay station was built to send the data to Isfjord Radio before being sent onwards to a geostationary satellite. The first installation was an 11-meter parabolic antenna with S and X band capability, the first satellite to use SvalSat was Landsat 7, which was launched on 15 April 1999. It was followed up by three other EOS satellites, Terra, Aqua and QuikSCAT, to ensure a sustainable financing of operations, NSC started negotiating with other potential customers. However, the project was rejected by the Indian Space Research Organisation, instead, a cooperation was made with Kongsberg Aerospace and Defence and Lockheed Martin, who built the second antenna as a joint venture. In 2001, a German research group applied for permission to establish a station in Ny-Ålesund. NSC feared that the competition could undermine the financial capabilities of SvalSat, however, no facility in Ny-Ålesund was built. In 2002, ownership and operations of the facility were consolidated, Lockheed Martin was no longer interested in owning a share of the facility, and sold their shares. NSC and Kongsberg merged their interests in the new company, which took over TSS. By 2004, six antennas, between 9 and 13 meters in diameter, had been installed, the reason was lack of optical fiber cable connection to the archipelago
6.
Global Positioning System
–
The Global Positioning System is a space-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Air Force. The GPS system operates independently of any telephonic or internet reception, the GPS system provides critical positioning capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world. The United States government created the system, maintains it, however, the US government can selectively deny access to the system, as happened to the Indian military in 1999 during the Kargil War. The U. S. Department of Defense developed the system and it became fully operational in 1995. Roger L. Easton of the Naval Research Laboratory, Ivan A, getting of The Aerospace Corporation, and Bradford Parkinson of the Applied Physics Laboratory are credited with inventing it. Announcements from Vice President Al Gore and the White House in 1998 initiated these changes, in 2000, the U. S. Congress authorized the modernization effort, GPS III. In addition to GPS, other systems are in use or under development, mainly because of a denial of access. The Russian Global Navigation Satellite System was developed contemporaneously with GPS, GLONASS can be added to GPS devices, making more satellites available and enabling positions to be fixed more quickly and accurately, to within two meters. There are also the European Union Galileo positioning system and Chinas BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, special and general relativity predict that the clocks on the GPS satellites would be seen by the Earths observers to run 38 microseconds faster per day than the clocks on the Earth. The GPS calculated positions would quickly drift into error, accumulating to 10 kilometers per day, the relativistic time effect of the GPS clocks running faster than the clocks on earth was corrected for in the design of GPS. The Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, two American physicists, William Guier and George Weiffenbach, at Johns Hopkinss Applied Physics Laboratory, decided to monitor Sputniks radio transmissions. Within hours they realized that, because of the Doppler effect, the Director of the APL gave them access to their UNIVAC to do the heavy calculations required. The next spring, Frank McClure, the deputy director of the APL, asked Guier and Weiffenbach to investigate the inverse problem — pinpointing the users location and this led them and APL to develop the TRANSIT system. In 1959, ARPA also played a role in TRANSIT, the first satellite navigation system, TRANSIT, used by the United States Navy, was first successfully tested in 1960. It used a constellation of five satellites and could provide a navigational fix approximately once per hour, in 1967, the U. S. Navy developed the Timation satellite, which proved the feasibility of placing accurate clocks in space, a technology required by GPS. In the 1970s, the ground-based OMEGA navigation system, based on comparison of signal transmission from pairs of stations. Limitations of these systems drove the need for a more universal navigation solution with greater accuracy, during the Cold War arms race, the nuclear threat to the existence of the United States was the one need that did justify this cost in the view of the United States Congress. This deterrent effect is why GPS was funded and it is also the reason for the ultra secrecy at that time
7.
Esrange
–
Esrange Space Center is a rocket range and research centre located outside the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden. It is a base for research with high-altitude balloons, investigation of the aurora borealis, sounding rocket launches. Located 200 km north of the Arctic Circle and surrounded by a vast wilderness, Esrange was built in 1964 by ESRO, the European Space Research Organisation, which later became European Space Agency by merging with ELDO, the European Launcher Development Organisation. The first rocket launch from Esrange occurred on 19 November 1966, in 1972, ownership was transferred to the newly started Swedish Space Corporation. In the 1960s ESRANGE was established as an ESRO sounding rocket launching range located in Kiruna, access to Kiruna was good by air, road and rail, and the launching range was relatively close to the town of Kiruna. Finally and perhaps decisively, ESRANGE could be located near Kiruna Geophysical Observatory, in 1972 ownership and operations of the range was transferred to the Swedish Space Corporation. The name of the facility was originally ESRANGE, which was an abbreviation for ESRO Sounding Rocket Launching Range, when Swedish Space Corporation took over the range, Esrange became a name only. Esrange Space Center is the name that is used for the facility. There had been Swedish rocket activities previously, mainly at Kronogård, however, the rocket activity in Sweden did not gain thrust until after ESRO established Esrange in 1964. During the period 1966-1972 ESRO launched more than 150 rockets from Esrange, most of these were Centaure, Nike Apache, and Skua rockets reaching 100–220 km altitude. They supported many branches of European research, but the emphasis was on atmospheric and ionospheric research, in 1972 the management of Esrange was transferred to the Swedish Space Corporation. For information on rockets, see the List of rockets launched from Esrange. The launch pad can handle balloons with volumes exceeding 1 million cubic meters, the arctic latitude of Esrange makes it very suitable for communication with satellites in polar orbits. Media related to Esrange at Wikimedia Commons Esrange Space Center List of stratospheric balloons launched from Esrange Swedish Space Corporation - Official site
8.
Mars Express
–
Mars Express is a space exploration mission being conducted by the European Space Agency. The Mars Express mission is exploring the planet Mars, and is the first planetary mission attempted by the agency, Express originally referred to the speed and efficiency with which the spacecraft was designed and built. Mars Express consists of two parts, the Mars Express Orbiter and the Beagle 2, a designed to perform exobiology. Due to the science return and the highly flexible mission profile, Mars Express has been granted six mission extensions. Some of the instruments on the orbiter, including the systems and some spectrometers. The design of Mars Express is based on ESAs Rosetta mission, on which a sum was spent on development. The same design was used for the Venus Express mission in order to increase reliability and reduce development cost. Because of these redesigns and repurposings, the total cost of the project was about $345 million- less than half of comparable U. S. missions. The Mars Express mission is dedicated to the study of the interior, subsurface, surface and atmosphere. Mars exploration is crucial for an understanding of the Earth from the perspective of comparative planetology. The spacecraft originally carried seven instruments, a small lander, a lander relay. All of the instruments take measurements of the surface, atmosphere and interplanetary media, from the spacecraft in polar orbit. The total initial Mars Express budget excluding the lander was €150 million, the prime contractor for the construction of Mars Express Orbiter was EADS Astrium Satellites. In the years preceding the launch of a spacecraft numerous teams of experts distributed over the companies and organisations prepared the space. Each of these teams focussed on the area of its responsibility, the spacecraft was launched on June 2,2003 at 23,45 local time from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, using a Soyuz-FG/Fregat rocket. The Mars Express and Fregat booster were initially put into a 200 km Earth parking orbit, the Fregat and Mars Express separated at approximately 19,17 UT. The solar panels were deployed and a trajectory correction manoeuvre was performed on June 4 to aim Mars Express towards Mars. The Mars Express was the first Russian-launched probe to make it out of LEO since the Soviet Union fell
9.
Santiago
–
Santiago de Chile, or simply Santiago, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chiles largest and the most densely populated conurbation, the city is entirely located in the countrys central valley, at an elevation of 520 m above mean sea level. Founded in 1541, Santiago has been the city of Chile since colonial times. The city has a core of 19th century neoclassical architecture and winding side-streets, dotted by art deco, neo-gothic. Santiagos cityscape is shaped by several hills and the fast-flowing Mapocho River. The Andes Mountains can be seen from most points in the city and these mountains contribute to a considerable smog problem, particularly during winter. The city outskirts are surrounded by vineyards and Santiago is within a few hours of both the mountains and the Pacific Ocean, Santiago is the cultural, political and financial center of Chile and is home to the regional headquarters of many multinational corporations. The Chilean executive and judiciary are located in Santiago, but Congress meets mostly in nearby Valparaíso, Santiago is named after the biblical figure St. James. In Chile, there are entities which bear the name of Santiago that are often confused. The Commune of Santiago, sometimes referred to as downtown or Central Santiago, is a division that comprises roughly the area occupied by the city during its colonial period. The city and regions demonym is santiaguinos and santiaguinas, according to certain archaeological investigations, it is believed that the first human groups of the X millennium settled in the Santiago basin. The groups were mainly nomadic hunter-gatherers, who traveled from the coast to the interior in search of guanacos during the time of the Andean snowmelt. The villages established in the belonging to picunches groups or promaucaes, were subject to the Inca Empire throughout the late fifteenth century. The Incas settled in the valley of mitimaes, the main installation settled in the center of the present city, with strengths as Huaca de Chena, the area would have served as a basis for the failed Inca expeditions southward road junction as the Inca Trail. Having been sent by Francisco Pizarro from Peru and having made the journey from Cuzco. The hosts of Valdivia camped by the river in the slopes of the Tupahue hill, the natives accepted and even recommended the foundation of the town on a small island between two branches of the river next to a small hill called Huelén. On 12 February 1541, Valdivia officially founded the city of Santiago del Nuevo Extremo in honor of St. James, patron saint of Spain, near the Huelén, renamed by the conqueror as St. Lucia. Following colonial rule, Valdivia entrusted the layout of the new town to master builder Pedro de Gamboa, in the center of the city, Gamboa designed a Plaza Mayor, around which various plots for the Cathedral and the governors house were selected
10.
Soviet Deep Space Network
–
It was built to support the space missions of the Soviet Union. Similar networks are run by the USA, China, Europe, Japan, the first Soviet space network had 13 stations and was designed to track Earth orbiting satellites. The selected design consisted of eight 16-meter dishes placed on two hulls of submarines, welded together and laid down on the railway bridge trusses. These trusses were mounted on bearings from battleship gun turrets, three such antennas were built, the two North stations for receiving, and the south station a few kilometers away for transmitting. In 1978, these antennas were augmented by the 70-meter antennas at Yevpatoria and Ussuriisk, with a third that was never completed at Suffa, Uzbekistan
11.
European Space Research and Technology Centre
–
The European Space Research and Technology Centre is the European Space Agencys main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands, although several kilometers off the village, at ESTEC, about 2500 engineers, technicians and scientists work hands-on with mission design, spacecraft and space technology. Prior to launch, almost all of the equipment that ESA launches is tested in some degree at ESTEC, the Space Expo is ESTECs visitors centre. It has a permanent exhibition about space exploration, future mission assessment Current project support Test Center Operations The European Space Research and Technology Centre was founded in 1968. The centre was to be a facility at the core of ESRO. Its responsibilities included the engineering and testing of satellites and their payloads, the integration of scientific instruments in these payloads, in some cases member states were to produce the scientific instruments for ESRO or produce them as part of their own national effort and compensate ESTEC for its service. In practice, national organisations simply used ESTEC as a service organisation, after the Bannier Report the facility gained overall executive authority for spacecraft development and was merged with ESLAB. The satellite control centre was moved to ESOC. ESTEC was originally to be located in Delft but because of unforeseen difficulties, in 1964 the ESRO decided to create an independent test centre that would be part of ESTEC. The first building with vibration and thermal vacuum facilities was completed in 1966 and the first satellite to be tested was the ESRO-1 satellite in 1968. In the 1990s and 2000s the following major facilities have added, The hydraulic shaker system, The Fr building with additional clean rooms, The Large EMC facility. The facilities are still belonging to ESA which is responsible for the facility development, test methodologies, test related engineering, the Space Expo is the permanent exhibition about space exploration at the ESTEC compound in Noordwijk. It was opened in 1990 by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, the exhibition has 70,000 visitors annually. V
12.
Launch vehicle
–
In spaceflight, a launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket used to carry a payload from Earths surface into outer space. A launch system includes the launch vehicle, the launch pad, Earth orbital launch vehicles typically have at least two stages, and sometimes as many as four or more. Expendable launch vehicles are designed for one-time use and they usually separate from their payload and disintegrate during atmospheric reentry. In contrast, reusable vehicles are designed to be recovered intact. The Space Shuttle was a part of a vehicle with components used for multiple orbital spaceflights. SpaceX has developed a rocket launching system to successfully bring back a part—the first stage—of their Falcon 9 and launch it again. A fully reusable VTVL design is planned for all parts of the ITS launch vehicle, Launch vehicles are often classified by the amount of mass they can carry into orbit. For example, a Proton rocket can lift 22,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit, Launch vehicles are also characterized by their number of stages. Rockets with as many as five stages have been successfully launched, additionally, launch vehicles are very often supplied with boosters supplying high early thrust, normally burning with other engines. Boosters allow the engines to be smaller, reducing the burnout mass of later stages to allow larger payloads. Other frequently reported characteristics of vehicles are the launching nation or space agency. For example, the European Space Agency is responsible for the Ariane V, many launch vehicles are considered part of a historical line of vehicles of same or similar name, e. g. the Atlas V is the latest Atlas rocket. A small-lift launch vehicle is capable of lifting up to 2,000 kg of payload into low Earth orbit, a medium-lift launch vehicle is capable of lifting 2,000 to 20,000 kg of payload into LEO. A heavy-lift launch vehicle is capable of lifting 20,000 to 50,000 kg of payload into LEO, a super-heavy lift vehicle is capable of lifting more than 50,000 kg of payload into LEO. It refers to its 1,500 kg to LEO Vega launch vehicle as light lift, sounding rockets have long been used for brief, inexpensive unmanned space and microgravity experiments. Current human-rated suborbital launch vehicles include SpaceShipOne and the upcoming SpaceShipTwo, minimizing air drag requires a reasonably high ballistic coefficient, a ratio of length to diameter greater than ten. This generally results in a vehicle that is at least 20 m long. Leaving the atmosphere as early on in the flight as possible provides a velocity loss due to air drag of around 300 m/s, Launch vehicles of sufficient size are capable of launching payloads smaller than their orbital capability, to the Moon or beyond
