Following the dissolution of the USSR, public funding for space projects dried, but now the private sector is taking up the slack.
Historically, space exploration, especially orbital launches which involve the spacecraft going high enough to complete an orbit of the Earth, has been so expensive and offered such uncertain returns on investment that it could only be funded by states.
It is difficult to establish comparable figures for Russia's space programme due to the multiple agencies involved and their military purpose meaning they were kept as state secrets, but the investment much have been equally considerable.Data analysis by Sky News shows that, since the 1990s, the private sector has driven investment in space exploration while states decreased the number of launches they were undertaking.
This compares with a much more diverse market in the US, where 17 companies have accounted for 514 launches.
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