I have posted many essays on nuclear weapons on my nuclear blog at nucleotidings.com. Most people are not aware or are not bothered by the fact that the United States and Russia both have about fifteen hundred nuclear missiles aimed at each other that can launch in minutes. As I have posted before, the U.S. missile forces has low morale all the way up to the generals in charge.
The first British space program began in 1959 with the Ariel series of six satellites which were built in the U.K. and the U.S. The satellites were launched by N.A.S.A. from U.S. sites. Ariel 1 was launched in 1962. The last of the six Ariel satellites was launched in 1979. Four of the satellites relayed back information about the Earth's ionosphere. The other two were dedicated to X-ray astronomy and cosmic-ray studies.
In 1961, French President Charles de Gaulle created the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) as a "public administration with industrial and commercial purpose" under the French Ministries of Defence and Research. CNES was established to focus on five areas of interest: access to space, civil applications of space, sustainable development, science and technology research, security and defense. France was the third nation to achieve access to space after the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
South Korea's first encounter with modern rocketry occurred as the U.S. moved missiles into S.K. to counter the North Koreans after the Korean war. The Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) was founded in 1989 in Daejeon, Korea primarily for the purpose of aerospace research. Its mission was to "Perform basic and applied studies in aerospace technology", "Perform government-delegated tasks and support policy development", "Support industries and transfer technology."
Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian citizen to fly into space. He was carried into orbit aboard a Russian spacecraft in 1984. In August of 2007, the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) stated that they were "seriously considering" developing a human spaceflight program.
