China National Space Administration

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) is the national space agency of the People's Republic of China. It is responsible for the national space program and for planning and development of space activities. CNSA and China Aerospace Corporation (CASC) assumed the authority over space development efforts previously held by the Ministry of Aerospace Industry. It is a subordinate agency of the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), itself a subordinate agency of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

History

Although China's space program has existed since 1956, CNSA is a relatively new agency created in 1993 when the Ministry of Aerospace Industry was split into CNSA and the China Aerospace Corporation (CASC). The former was to be responsible for policy, while the latter was to be responsible for execution. This arrangement proved somewhat unsatisfactory, as these two agencies were, in effect, one large agency, sharing both personnel and management.

KazCosmos

The National Space Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Kazakh: Қазақстан Республикасы Ұлттық ғарыш агенттiгi), also known as KazCosmos, or KazKosmos, is Kazakhstan's national space agency, and was officially established on March 27, 2007.

History

Cosmonaut corps

On 7 January 2000, the Kazakhstani government decreed it would form a cosmonaut corps. At that time, two Kazakh cosmonauts had already flown, Toktar Aubakirov in 1991, and Talgat Musabayev (1994, 1998; later 2001). Out of 2000 candidates, two were selected, Aidyn Aimbetov and Mukhtar Aymakhanov, in 2002. They were sent to Star City for training from 2003 until 2009, when the world financial crisis indefinitely postponed the spaceflight. In 2009, they returned to work in KazCosmos. They had originally been projected for a spaceflight in 2005 or 2006. Aymakhanov left Kazakhstan in 2012 to become a Russian citizen to pursue a cosmonaut career. Aimbetov was still ready for spaceflight in April 2015. In June 2015, he was selected as the replacement for Sarah Brightman on Soyuz TMA-18M/Soyuz TMA-16M, who had declined to fly, and her backup Satoshi Takamatsu also declined. Soyuz TMA-18M will launch in September 2015. Aimbetov had originally been projected to fly on a 2017 launch.Aidyn Aimbetov launched from Baikonaur on 2 September 2015 aboard Soyuz TMA-18M, docked with the International Space Station, and returned on 11 September 2015 aboard Soyuz TMA-16M, touching down on the Kazakhstan Steppe, having spent 10 days in space.

List of government space agencies

This is a list of government agencies engaged in activities related to outer space and space exploration.

As of 2015, 70 different government space agencies are in existence; 13 of those have launch capability. Six government space agencies - the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the European Space Agency (ESA), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA or Roscosmos) - have full launch capabilities; these include the ability to launch and recover multiple satellites, deploy cryogenic rocket engines and operate extraterrestrial probes. Only three currently operating government space agencies in the world - NASA, the RFSA and the CNSA - are capable of human spaceflight.

The name given is the English version, with the native language version below. The acronym given is the most common acronym: this can either be the acronym of the English version (e.g. JAXA), or the acronym in the native language. Where there are multiple acronyms in common use, the English one is given first.