The CIA desires to share what it knows about world space programs. A few of what it knows, anyway.
The US Central Intelligence Agency, higher referred to as the CIA, has released a brand new entry in its World Factbook that catalogues the programs and milestones of space agencies world wide. Over 90 countries and the European Union are represented in the brand new Space Programs section of the agency’s factbook, spanning from Algeria to Zimbabwe.
A CIA spokesperson told Space.com that, resulting from the increased visibility of space programs world wide, there may be a necessity for the agency to offer “sound, reliable background information” to be used by students of all ages, journalists, academics or anyone else in search of a “deep dive right into a country and its space program.”
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The Space Programs factbook includes how much each nation spends on its space program, based on available spending estimates and budget information. The resource also includes transient listings on individual countries’ key activities, each historical and current.
All of the data in the brand new factbook section is unclassified and publicly available, and has been gathered together from open sources. Still, it could be surprising to some readers to learn which nations do, actually, have an area program, the CIA spokesperson added. Nicaragua, for instance, a rustic not commonly related to spaceflight, pledged to spend over $250 million on a communications satellite with Chinese funding in 2013, in line with the factbook.
The brand new Space Programs section is the primary latest appendix added to the CIA World Factbook since 2021. Its addition coincides with the eightieth anniversary of the factbook’s predecessor publication.
The agency’s spokesperson said the CIA’s Space Programs appendix is a “living document” that is predicted to be updated weekly, however the agency hopes to have the option to incorporate more frequent updates in the longer term.