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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Our space odysseys in 2014
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Our space odysseys in 2014

If there was one area where humanity's interest was piqued like never before this year, it was in space exploration

Satellites serve critical purposes such as mobile telephony, direct-to-home (DTH) television viewing, navigation and weather forecasting. Photo: JAXA via BloombergPremium
Satellites serve critical purposes such as mobile telephony, direct-to-home (DTH) television viewing, navigation and weather forecasting. Photo: JAXA via Bloomberg

Like every other year, 2014 had its share of highs and lows. But if there was one area where humanity’s interest was piqued like never before, it was in space exploration.

The deep space exploration probes featured in the Hollywood movie Interstellar and the more-realistic yet equally stupefying comet landing 500 million km away from Earth were, of course, preceded by the nearest friends of humanity in space—satellites.

Satellites orbit the planet between 200km and 36,000km above the Earth’s surface. They serve critical purposes such as mobile telephony, direct-to-home (DTH) television viewing, navigation and weather forecasting. Of the 1,235 satellites currently orbiting the earth, half are being used for communication purposes alone.

The charts below provide an overview of the world of satellites and of mankind’s achievements in space.

The initial era of space exploration was entirely dominated by the Cold War superpowers. However, developing countries have been catching up fast. With 29 satellites in space, India holds the distinction of being the only developing country other than China to be among the top 10 satellite-owning countries of the world.

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Published: 29 Dec 2014, 01:04 AM IST
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