History

During the early years of

spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in or ...

only

nation state A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group. A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may inc ...

s had the resources to develop and fly

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...

. Both the

U.S. space program The space policy of the United States includes both the making of space policy through the legislative process, and the implementation of that policy in the United States' civilian and military space programs through regulatory agencies. The early ...

and

Soviet space program The Soviet space program (russian: Космическая программа СССР, Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR) was the national space program of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), active from 1955 until the dissoluti ...

were operated using mainly military pilots as

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

s. During this period, no commercial space launches were available to private operators, and no private organization was able to offer space launches. In the 1980s, the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

created

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy ...

, the world's first commercial space transportation company, and, following the

Challenger disaster On January 28, 1986, the broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39a.m. EST (16:39 UTC). It was ...

, the American government deregulated the American

space transportation Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in or ...

market as well. In the 1990s the Russian government sold their majority stake in

RSC Energia PAO S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (russian: Ракетно-космическая корпорация «Энергия» им. С. П. Королёва, Raketno-kosmicheskaya korporatsiya "Energiya" im. S. P. Korolyov ...

to private investors (although it has recently renationalized the Russian space sector in 2013–2014. ) These events for the first time allowed private organizations to purchase, develop and offer space launch services; beginning the period of

private spaceflight Private spaceflight is spaceflight or the development of spaceflight technology that is conducted and paid for by an entity other than a government agency. In the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Unio ...

in the late-1980s and early-1990s.

Satellite manufacturers

There are 10 major companies that build large, commercial,

Geosynchronous A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbital ...

satellite platforms: In addition to those above, the following companies have successfully built and launched (smaller) satellite platforms:

Launch vehicle manufacturers and providers of third party services

Commercial wings of national space agencies: *

Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC; 漢翔航空工業 or 漢翔航空) is a Taiwan, Taiwanese aerospace company based in Taichung. It is one of only two Taiwanese companies with the capabilities of a traditional American or Eu ...

AIDC
an
Taiwan Aerospace Industry AssociationTAIA
Taiwan *

Antrix Corporation Antrix Corporation Limited ( ISO 15919: ) is an Indian government-owned company under the administrative control of the Department of Space. It was incorporated in September 1992, as a commercial and marketing arm of ISRO by prompting, comme ...

India *

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, or CASC, is the main contractor for the Chinese space program. It is state-owned and has subsidiaries which design, develop and manufacture a range of spacecraft, launch vehicles, strategic ...

China *Aerockets

Lander, rover and probe manufacturers

Spacecraft component manufacturers

Propulsion manufacturers

References

{{Space exploration lists and timelines *

spacecraft manufacturers A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, pl ...