2.3 Space Comes of Age

Globalstar

A company that developed fleets, or constellations of satellites to operate in low-Earth orbit to provide global phone and data service

Iridium

A company that developed fleets, or constellations of satellites to operate in low-Earth orbit to provide global phone and data service

ORBCOMM

A company that developed fleets, or constellations of satellites to operate in low-Earth orbit to provide global phone and data service

DigitalGlobe

A company that developed satellites to provide high-resolution images of Earth for both governments and businesses

Orbimage

A company that developed satellites to provide high-resolution images of Earth for both governments and businesses

Space Imaging

A company that developed satellites to provide high-resolution images of Earth for both governments and businesses

Sirius Satellite Radio

A company that launched satellites to provide commercial-free radio programming to subscribers in a way similar to DTH television

XM Satellite Radio

A company that launched satellites to provide commercial-free radio programming to subscribers in a way similar to DTH television

Orion

A crewed spacecraft for the Constellation Program

Advanced Extremely High Frequency

A series of communications satellites operated by the United States Air Force Air Force Space Command.

Chang'e

A series of robotic probes to the Moon launched by China

Ariane

A European built expendable rocket

Huygens

A European-built probe called _, deployed by Casinsi, that descended through the atmosphere and landed on the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in early 2005

Global Change Observation Mission-Water

A Japanese spacecraft to study climate change, is also part of the A-Train

Mars Science Laboratory

A Mars mission featuring a rover named Curiosity. This one-ton, nuclear-powered rover landed on Mars in August 2012 in a large feature named Gale Crater. MSL is equipped with instruments designed to study Martian rocks and soil to help scientists understand the planet's history, including looking for evidence of past liquid water and organic materials that are the building blocks of life.

Commercial Orbital Transportation Services

A NASA program to create systems to transport cargo to and from the ISS

CloudSat

A NASA satellite which examines how clouds regulate Earth's climate

Aura

A NASA satellite which studies atmospheric chemistry

New Horizons

A NASA spacecraft launched in early 2006, will fly past Pluto in July 2015 to study it and its several moons

Wide-Band Global Satcom

A high-capacity satellite communications system that supports the Department of Defense's warfighting information exchange requirements, enabling execution of tactical command and control, communications, and computers; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR); battle management; and combat support information.

Sentinel

A series of spacecraft will include radar imagers that can provide imagery of Earth through clouds and at night, as well as high-resolution cameras and other instruments for studying land, oceans, and the atmosphere

Compton Gamma Ray Observatory

A sophisticated satellite observator dedicated to observing the high-energy Universe. _ carries a collection of four instruments which together detected an unprecedented broad range of high-energy radiation called gamma rays.

International Space Station

A space station, or a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. It is a modular structure whose first component was launched in 1998. Now the largest artificial body in orbit. The _ program is a joint project among five participating space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA

Hubble Space Telescope

A space telescope launched in 1990, used to study objects both in our own solar system and in galaxies billions of light years away.

Cold War

A state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Wester Bloc (The United States, its NATO allies and others) and power in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its allies in the Warsaw Pact)

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites

A weather satellite, operated by NOAA, that provides continuous images of cloud patterns and other data from geostationary orbit, 36,000 kilometers up

Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite

A weather satellite, operated by NOAA, that provides more detailed meteorological data from orbits about 800 kilometers high

Mars Pathfinder

An American spacecraft that landed a base station with a roving probe on Mars in 1997. It consisted of a lander and a lightweight (10.6 kg/23 lb) wheeled robotic Mars rover named Sojourner.

Galileo Spacecraft

Entered orbit around Jupiter in late 1995, provided detailed images and other data about Jupiter and its moons, and deployed a probe into the planet's dense atmosphere

Mars Exploration Rovers

In January 2004, two robotic geologists named Spirit and Opportunity landed on opposite sides of the red planet. With far greater mobility than the 1997 Mars Pathfinder rover, these robotic explorers have trekked for miles across the Martian surface, conducting field geology and making atmospheric observations. Carrying identical, sophisticated sets of science instruments, both rovers have found evidence of ancient Martian environments where intermittently wet and habitable conditions existed.

Chanda X-Ray Observatory

Launched by NASA in 1999 to study the universe at x-ray wavelengths.

Spitzer Space Telescope

Launched in 2003, an infrared observatory.

Dawn Spacecraft

Launched in 2007, used its ion propulsion system to visit the asteroid Vesta in 2011 with a follow-on visit to Ceres in early 2015, becoming the first space probe to orbit two different bodies

Kepler Spacecraft

Launched in 2009, _ focuses on only a small sliver of the sky, but monitors more than 100,000 stars to look for any brief, periodic drops in brightness caused when a planet orbiting that star passes in front of it

Aqua

NASA satellite which studies the water cycle

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

NASA's _ blasted off from Cape Canaveral in 2005, on a search for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars for a long period of time.

Orbiting Climate Observatory 2

NASA's first dedicated Earth remote sensing satellite to study atmospheric carbon dioxide from space.

Constellation Program

Program to implement the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE), designing a crewed spacecraft called Orion, a rocket to launch Orion called Ares I, and a heavy-lift launch vehicle called Ares V

GLONASS

Russian satellite navigation system

Position, Navigation, and Timing

Services provided by space satellites in the form of communication transmissions, navigational position, navigation, and timing.

Cassini

Space probe that arrived at Saturn in 2004 capable of taking accurate measurements and detailed images in a variety of atmospheric conditions and light spectra. It continues to return data.

Space-Based Telescopes

Telescopes placed in space above Earth's atmosphere.

Mobile User Objective System

The U.S. Navy's _ is a next-generation narrowband tactical satellite communications system designed to significantly improve ground communications for U.S. forces on the move. _ will provide military users more communications capability over existing systems, including simultaneous voice, video and data - similar to the capabilities experienced today with smartphones.

U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS)

The _ is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more _ satellites.

James Webb Space Telescope

The _ will be a large infrared telescope with a 6.5 meter primary mirror. The project is working to a 2018 launch date. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.

Operationally Responsive Space

The goal of the _ Office is to find ways to develop military space systems more rapidly, and at lower costs, than conventional systems

X PRIZE

The most high-profile _ to date was the Ansari _ relating to spacecraft development awarded in 2004. This prize was intended to inspire research and development into technology for space exploration.

Landsat

These satellites have produced images of most of Earth's land masses, useful for analyzing long-term and quick-response changes

Atlas

_ is a family of United States missiles and space launch vehicles

Delta

_ is a versatile family of expendable launch systems that has provided space launch capability in the United States since 1960

Mars Global Surveyor

_ was a global mapping mission that examined the entire planet, from the ionosphere down through the atmosphere to the surface.