“US Dominates Space Exploration Investments, NASA Budget Booming in 2024”

Huge sums have been spent to send objects into space in an attempt to unravel its mysteries. Among the explorer countries, one of them to maintain consistency in its investments.

The conquest of space is always a dream. For almost half a century, many countries have constantly devoted part of their budget to it with the aim of developing their knowledge. Among them, the United States leads in terms of investment according to figures compiled by Statista.

From 1968 to 1995, however, Russia sent the most objects into space. The United States then caught up from 1996 until today. Since 2017, the United States appears to have doubled its efforts, sending 287 objects that year, while the next country, China, sent 38.

In 2022, the Americans broke the record with the sending of 1,796 objects into space. NASA projects a budget of $27 billion for 2024, showing the importance the United States places on space exploration.

In total, in terms of objects sent into space after Statesmanthe United States leads with 1,796, followed by China with 131, then the United Kingdom, Russia with 47 objects, France with 8 objects, India with 6 objects, Japan with 5 objects and finally from Germany with 2 objects for the year 2022.

Examples of such space shipments include satellites, probes, landers, manned spacecraft, and elements of space stations.

L’European Space Agency (ESA) has a “record” budget of 14.4 billion dollars for the period 2020-2024. In contrast, the Biden administration is offering NASA $26 billion for the year 2023 alone, showing the scale of US investment in space.

To date, around 18,000 large objects have been identified in orbit. Of these, only 6% are satellites still in operation. The rest is what is called space debris, man-made objects in orbit that no longer serve any purpose.

With a budget of 5.72 billion euros in 2019 (i.e. 0.07% of the budgets of the member countries), the ESA cannot compete with the American NASA, world leader, which has a budget of 19.8 billion euros for the same period (i.e. 0.58% of the American budget). ESA is an international organization with 22 member states, including France.

As for China, although its investments have increased considerably since the beginning of the century, the budget of its space agency is 9.8 billion euros, less than half of the American budget. The Americans seem determined to impose themselves in the conquest of space.