List of government space agencies
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Government space agencies are established by governments of countries or regional groupings of countries to establish a means for advocating for and/or engaging in activities related to outer space, exploitation of space systems, and space exploration. The listings summarize all countries and regional authorities that have established space agencies. The listings established a comparative summary of demonstrated capabilities across the countries that have invested in the pursuit of space-based objectives.
Government space agency organizations are established with objectives that include national prestige, exploitation of remote sensing information, communications, education, and economic development. These agencies tend to be civil in nature (vs military) and serve to advance the benefits of exploitation and/or exploration of space. Government agencies span the spectrum from ancient organizations with small budgets to mature national or regional enterprises such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States, the European Space Agency (ESA) which coordinates for more than 20 constituent countries, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos) of Russia, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and the China National Space Agency (CNSA).
The space agency listings are segregated to enable identification of subsets of the complete list that have advanced to higher levels or technical or programmatic proficiency in accordance with the following:
- Establishment of agency, initial exploitation of space-based systems
- Development of launch capability
- Capacity for extraterrestrial exploration
- Demonstration of human spaceflight capability across one or more of these domains
The four listings identify a technological progression in complexity and capacity that historically aligned to the developments that occurred during the 20th century space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. It is not intended to offer that this is the only path to advanced space faring status; variations and adaptations are expected and are likely to occur based on the technological capabilities that are available to today as opposed to 50 or more years ago. For each identified "Demonstrated capability" a reference is included to that program's first demonstration of the technical capacity or capability to meet the defined objective.
The fifth listing identifies countries that are considering or are developing space agency organizations but have not ratified formation or operation as of yet.
Note as well that the demonstrated capabilities represent the national (or regional) capacity to achieve the identified objective. These listings do not attempt to determine which programs were uniquely or solely funded by the space agency itself. For each listing, the short name or acronym identified is the English version, with the native language version below. The date of the founding of the space agency is the date of first operations where applicable. If the space agency is no longer running, then the date when it was terminated. Additionally, the strategic nature of many space programs result in cooperation between civil agency and military organizations to meet unique staff and technical proficiencies required to support space programs given the geographic expanse required to ensure successful operation.
List of space agencies
[edit]As of 2024,[update] nearly 80 different government space agencies are in existence, including more than 70 national space agencies and several international agencies. Initial competencies demonstrated include the funding and nomination of candidates to serve as astronauts, cosmonauts, or taikonauts with the countries/organizations executing human spaceflight solutions. Other demonstrated capabilities include the operation of a satellite (e.g. a communications or remote sensing system) largely developed and/or delivered by a third party, the domestic development of a satellite system, and the capacity to recover a science payload from a sub-orbital or orbital mission. Several space agencies, both national and international, have demonstrated all four of those capabilities.[citation needed]
List of space agencies with launch capability
[edit]This group of agencies have developed or are developing launch infrastructure including space launch sites, suborbital launch technology, orbital launch systems, and reusable hardware technologies.
List of space agencies with extraterrestrial exploration capability
[edit]This group of agencies have developed advanced technological capabilities required for travel and study of other heavenly bodies within the Solar System. These involve the capacity to leave the local area around the planet Earth for lunar and/or missions to other bodies in the Solar System. As of February 2023, six (6) countries/agencies have achieved objectives necessary to be listed here.
| Country | Space agency | Demonstrated capability | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Acronym | Founded | Operates flyby spacecraft | Operates extraterrestrial orbiter | Controlled surface impact | Uncrewed soft landing | Uncrewed rover operation | Sample return | |
 China | China National Space Administration[117] | CNSA | 22 Apr 1993[15] |  (Chang'e 5-T1) | (Chang'e 1) | (Chang'e 1) | (Chang'e 3) | (Yutu-1) | (Chang'e 5) |
| European Space Agency[118] | ESA ASE EWO | 30 May 1975 | (Ulysses) | (Mars Express) | (Rosetta) | (Huygens) |  | | |
 India | Indian Space Research Organisation[119] | ISRO इसरो | 15 Aug 1969[37] | (Chandrayaan-3) | (Chandrayaan-1) | (Moon Impact Probe)[39] | (Chandrayaan-3) | (Pragyan) | |
 Japan | Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency[120] | JAXA ジャクサ | 1 Oct 2003 | (Hiten) | (Hiten) | (Hiten) | (Hayabusa) | (MINERVA-II) | (Hayabusa) |
 Soviet Union | Soviet space program | СССР Космическая программа | 1955 disbanded 25 Dec 1991 | (Luna 1) | (Luna 10) | (Luna 2) | (Luna 9) |
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