Until now, only a select few countries have been able to launch their satellites into the space. The rest of the world either relies on help from these countries or borrow satellite images from companies. However, over the next decade, a number of developing space programs in many other countries will result in some 280 satellites being launched into space.
Interestingly, there are a number of rather surprising candidates in this space race. For instance, the fact that South Korea is readying a satellite isn’t a surprise since the country is known to be fairly tech-savvy. However, to know that Kazakhstan is also gearing up for two satellite launches has a certain element of surprise.
Turkey will also be sending Goktruk-1, its very own satellite to the space soon. Four satellites from Vietnam are also trying to make in the list whereas Taiwan’s Formosat-5 is slated for a 2015 launch.
Nearly all these new candidates are sending out satellites so that they can gather information such as weather conditions, military observation, urban planning and other details on their own. As mentioned above, most of the world currently relies on buying these images from other countries which costs them a substantial sum.
However, now that many new countries are developing their own space programs, it is only inevitable that they would want to launch their own satellites and become independent in that domain. From the looks of it, the space around the Earth is soon going to be fairly crowded with a lot of metal hulks.
Courtesy: PopSci
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