Space launches reached the highest last year since 1957 to 146 launches a year according to China’s major space contractor. About 1846 space crafts were sent into space with combined mass of 777.7 tonnes according to blue paper released on Wednesday.
According to blue paper released, the success rate of global space launches were 92.5 percent throughout the year but the paper also noted that space launches were still quite a high-risk endeavor.
Last year saw China make the highest number of space launches at 55 in 2021 with aggregate weight of space crafts sent into orbit by China reaching 191.19 tonnes which is an 85.5 increase in tonnes from previous year.
This increase in weight is mostly attributed to the launch of core module and other space crafts related to the construction of China’s first space station it started building last year and hopes to complete in 2022.
The US which has been dominate force in space come in second place with 51 launches but sent a total of 403.34 tonnes of space crafts launched in to space which is more than the combined mass of space crafts launched by all other countries in the year.
According to the blue paper, Russia come in third place, Europe in fourth place, Japan in the fifth place and India in the sixth place.
Space is becoming more and more important in 21st century where everything we do in our daily lives relays on space based assets like communication, fighting modern wars, doing financial transactions, education and sports. All these activities and more that I didn’t mention relay on space based assets to operate.
In coming years, we are likely to stiff competition among countries in space especially between China and the US as each try to beat the other country in establishing bases on the moon or landing humans on Mars.
