Comments on: Space Launches Over Time

By: Rich

Rich — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:40:39 +0000

From the data available, would it be possible to derive a graph that shows the payload volume remaining in space over time? Accounting for failure as well as planned reentry?

As far as the charting goes, a simply multi-line graph would probably be the easiest to follow.

By: Астрономия за неделю. 3 — 9 октября 2011

Астрономия за неделю. 3 — 9 октября 2011 — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 20:33:13 +0000

[...] предлагают авторы инфографики, а вслед за ними и блог Cosmic Variance. Также не совсем ясен всплеск запусков коммерческих [...]

By: Kort astronieuws van de afgelopen week

Kort astronieuws van de afgelopen week — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:58:11 +0000

[...] Wowie, een overzicht van álle raketlanceringen vanaf de allereerste in 1957, yep met de Spoetnik. [...]

By: Actualidad en Astronomía: Semana 10-10-2011 « Campos de Estrellas

Actualidad en Astronomía: Semana 10-10-2011 « Campos de Estrellas — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 13:20:24 +0000

[...] Gráfica del número de lanzamientos al espacio de la URSS/Rusia y USA desde el inicio de la carrera espacial hasta nuestros días, Space Launches Over Time. [...]

By: sebastian

sebastian — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:54:25 +0000

@10

It is very unlikely to work. (now if g were just half of its actual value)

By: Eccentric & Anomalous

Eccentric & Anomalous — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:14:10 +0000

To Jonathan #8: Great work! Looking forward to your other upcoming plots…

By: Phillip Helbig

Phillip Helbig — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:52:30 +0000

@#9 What’s wrong with a non-nuclear space elevator?

By: chris

chris — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 07:04:11 +0000

the only phase transition possible would be going nuclear (remember, that’s the payload plotted). now that’s not going to happen.

so the other option will come into effect: the space age ends. barring the turnaround on communication/military satellites. but these will get more lightweight and that will be it.

By: Jonathan McDowell

Jonathan McDowell — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:21:52 +0000

Hi Sean – this graphic was made based on a database that I provided. The late 90s uptick/downtick is Iridium and its cousins Globalstar and Orbcomm, followed by their bankruptcies.

In the nearish future I’m planning to generate some new graphs that may be more illuminating (if less pretty that the TechReview version) – active satellites versus time, and tons to orbit versus time (still finishing the data entry for the end-of-life dates and masses) – stay tuned to Jonathan’s Space Report

cheers J

By: Gregory Ruderman

Gregory Ruderman — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:53:50 +0000

Commercial launches decreased by a combination of factors, but mostly it turns out that the capacity of comsats to deal with much larger throughput over that time, as well as the fact that existing satelites turn out to last much longer than anyone expected they really would.

By: Phillip Helbig

Phillip Helbig — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:27:47 +0000

The fact that “amateur” includes “universities” says it all.

Yes, a standard layered bar chart would have been better. Charts like those above are generally shown for population as a function of time or of age (with time or age showed on the y axis since left-right symmetry is more fundamental than up-down symmetry (which is why, in cosmology, I have lambda on the x axis and Omega on the y axis) and would make sense here if there were two things being shown simultaneously, but that’s not the case here.

Will the “phase transition” be a space elevator? (Maybe a private company from China will build the first one.)

By: Izzy

Izzy — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:13:45 +0000

Anyone else find the presentation of these graphics unnecessarily cryptic? You have to mentally move the x-axis to the middle of the mirrored data. A standard layered bar chart would have worked nicely.

By: Brian Fane

Brian Fane — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:51:42 +0000

According to Wikipedia, Iridium consisted of 66 satellites launched in 1997 and 1998.

By: Becca Stareyes

Becca Stareyes — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:40:41 +0000

You can see the Challenger disaster in the data — 1986-87 is a notch on the graph. 2003-5 (post Columbia) don’t look nearly as dramatic, perhaps because we had other rockets and the commercial launches were larger.

By: BaronGrim

BaronGrim — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:39:53 +0000

Wasn’t the late ’90s the peak of the satellite phone boom with companies like Iridium launching dozens of satellites?

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:35:40 +0000

>I didn’t find a reason for the uptick and subsequent downturn in US commercial launches in the late 90′s.

Maybe the Iridium satellite constellation? Or in general, the extravagant exuberance of late 90′s.