What do we seek in the heavens, and who has a stake in what we send there?
People have looked at the sky for as long as they have written, and now they send objects into it. What do we seek there, and who is affected by what we place in orbit?
The picture
What the numbers show, read from the Data library each time the page opens.
How to read the chart above, and the words it uses (for orbital launches).
How to read the data
The figure counts attempts to place something in orbit in a year, whether or not they succeed. It does not say who paid for them or what they carried, and a single launch may put up one satellite or many.
Key terms
Orbital launch
A rocket flight meant to put a payload into orbit around the earth or beyond.
Payload
What the rocket carries, such as a satellite, a probe or a crew.
Launch attempt
Counted whether or not the flight reaches orbit.
Who has a stake
Each interest, then readings from the Catholic library and the Classics library that bear on it, oldest first. Choose a group to read.
To be free to explore and to build what serves others, with the resources to do it well and the means to answer for the risks.
That observation of the sky, on the ground and from orbit, goes on and its findings are shared.
That the services they cannot see, such as weather warnings, navigation, and communication, keep working and are not endangered by crowding or conflict.
That the night sky, which belongs to no one in particular, is not spoiled and that the wonder it gives is kept for those to come.
For discussion
The psalmist and Kant both begin with awe at the sky. Does what we send there add to that awe, or change it?
Those who depend on satellites cannot see them. What do those who launch owe to people who have never heard of the services they use?
The sky belongs to no one. How might the interests of those who build and those who look up both be weighed?
