The CIA wants to share what it knows about the global space programs. Some he knows, though.
The US Central Intelligence Agency, better known as the CIA, has released a new entry in the World Factbook that ranks the programs and milestones of space agencies around the world. More than 90 countries and the European Union are represented at the new conference space programmes to divide From the Agency Factbook, which stretches from Algeria to Zimbabwe.
A CIA spokesperson told Space.com that as the visibility of space programs increases around the world, there is a need for the agency to provide “sound and reliable background information” for use by students of all ages, journalists, academics, or anyone. Another is looking for a “deep dive into a country and its space program.”
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The Space Programs Factbook includes how much each country is spending on its space program, based on available spending estimates and budget information. The resource also includes short lists of key activities for each country, both historical and current.
All information in the New Factbook section is unclassified and publicly available, and has been gathered together from open sources. However, the CIA spokesperson added that it may come as a surprise to some readers to learn which countries do in fact have a space program. For example, Nicaragua, a country not usually associated with spaceflight, pledged to spend more than $250 million on a Chinese-funded communications satellite in 2013, according to the factbook.
The new Space Programs section is the first new appendix added to the CIA’s World Factbook since 2021. Its addition coincides with the 80th anniversary of the publication of the previous Factbook.
The agency spokesperson said the CIA’s space program supplement is a “living document” that is expected to be updated weekly, but the agency hopes to be able to include more frequent updates in the future.
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