Space Agencies

A space agency is a program created by a country's government to participate in space flight in some capacity. That capacity might be merely operating a space probe, or it could mean launching humans to land on the moon. Many countries at least operate communication satellites.
Currently, only the Russian Federal Space Agency and NASA engage in the launch of manned spaceflight. Several countries have the capability, but they rely on NASA's Space Shuttle and Russia's Soyuz rockets.
One notable exception to the Space Agency paradigm is European Space Agency (ESA). The ESA is comprised of eighteen member nations, each contributing their share to the agency's annual budget.