ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) was established by India on 15 august, 1969 and working since then ISRO has made many satellites and payload vehicles for exploration. It has launched dozens of satellites since the mid-1970s and even sent a spacecraft to orbit the moon about five years ago. Now, the India Space Research Organization (ISRO) is set to launch a mission to Mars in November 2013. India will search the planet for methane and will also gather data on the planet’s weather systems. Plans to put two Indian astronauts into orbit by 2016 are also in the works, at an estimated cost of $2.3 billion. However, India’s space program has had its share of snags. In April 2010, a rocket carrying a satellite and powered by a cryogenic engine that was the first to be developed in India plunged into the Bay of Bengal minutes after takeoff after the engine failed to ignite. Eight months later, a similar rocket exploded just after liftoff.
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is a space agency of the United States of America. It was established in 1958. NASA has a very important role in the exploration. NASA was the first agency which sent first manned mission on the moon (Neil A. Armstrong)
ROSCOSMOS also known as Russian Federal Space Agency is among the top space agencies of the world however it was established in 1992 after dissolution of the Soviet Union. ROSCOSMOS have worked that much as Soviet Program did in its period.
ESA is group of nations working together for space exploration. The members of ESA are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Canada. It was established in 1975 and its head quarter is in Paris, France. ESA has various launch vehicles to launch their satellites in space.
The Asian powerhouse has seemingly been moving at warp speed in recent years to establish itself as a big player in the space race. China already has four manned flights and numerous satellite launches under its belt and is working on establishing its own independently maintained space stations, something only the U.S. and Russia have done to date. In October 2003, China became the third country, after Russia and the U.S., to launch a manned spacecraft, the Shenzhou 5, into orbit. By 2008, taikonaut Zhai Zhigang performed China’s first spacewalk on the outside of the Shenzhou 7 space capsule. Just last June, China’s first female astronaut, Liu Yang, blasted off for a 13-day mission to the orbiting module Tiangong 1 — a prototype for a future space station. Next up is the launch of Shenzhou 10, scheduled for June 2013
Israel began looking into space exploration in the 1960s and established a National Space Studies Board in 1963. The Israel Space Agency was created in 1983 and by 1988, launched its first satellite, the Israeli-built Ofeq-1. Since then, a dozen more satellites have been launched by Israel. The country’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, went into space aboard the U.S. space shuttle Columbia on Jan. 16, 2003, but died along with six other crew members when the shuttle disintegrated while re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere on Feb. 1, 2003. Since then, the space agency has been working with other major space programs and has co-operation agreements with eight space agencies, including NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.
France’s space agency, the Centre national CNES), was founded in 1961. It launched its first satellite in 1965 and since then has set up a launch base in Kourou, French Guiana, and established the Toulouse Space Centre. In 2011, its Ariane 5 launch vehicle completed five flights, bringing the total number of consecutive successful missions since February 2003 to 46. More recently, France has contributed some of the scientific instruments that make up NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover, a research robot sent to Mars in November 2011 to search for signs that the planet may have at one point sustained life.
Japan has sent dozens of satellites into orbit, typically on rockets built by other nations, since 1970. But it wasn’t until 2003 that its three space research organizations were merged into the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). In July 2012, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide travelled to the Worldwide Space Station on the Russian Soyuz aircraft for a long-stay mission. Japan has also fruitfully sent unmanned cargo vessels to the ISS, carrying food, supplies and scientific equipment. It plans to send one H-II Transfer Vehicle a year on re-supply missions to the station until 2015. However, it’s still trying to catch up with China, the new leader in Asia’s space race. Japan currently has no vehicles that can take humans into space, but it announced in 2005 that it planned to develop a manned spacecraft and send it to the moon by 2025.
Canada is one of the countries that has a space program but does not have launch capability. Nonetheless, its space program has taken centre stage in the last few months, with Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield documenting his mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS) with mesmerizing photos of Earth shared via social media to the delight of many on solid ground below. He is set to make history in March when he becomes the first Canadian leader of the station, a landmark achievement in Canada’s 50-year-old space program. An earlier and much-touted Canadian space breakthrough was the Canadarm, a Canadian-built robotic arm that first trembled to life aboard the Columbia space shuttle in 1981. A second cohort of the arm is now installed at the ISS, where it helps move equipment, supplies and astronauts. However, Canada’s status as a space-faring nation is sliding. According to a November review ordered by the federal government, Canada’s space program has been lacking direction and falling behind that of other countries. Canada has spent less money on the program than even smaller countries such as Belgium, Israel and Luxembourg, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Recently, Canada has revealed new rover prototypes, which the agency says is a important step in emerging the next generation of vehicles for space assessment.