Asian Surveying & Mapping
Breaking News
HAL to build, market Isro’s SSLV in landmark deal
New Delhi, Jun 20: In a historic move for...
Taiwan developing space capabilities for all-weather imaging
TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan is advancing its space...
Honda hails successful test of reusable rocket as it looks to get into the space business
Tokyo — Japan's second-biggest carmaker, Honda, has successfully tested...
China’s space program provides larger platform for broader international cooperation
BEIJING -- Experts from China's manned space program said...
India To Launch $1.5 Billion Joint Earth Mission With NASA In July
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Indian...
Axiom-4 mission delayed again: ISRO confirms Subhanshu Shukla’s ISS spaceflight won’t launch before 22 June 2025
The Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station has...
Mengzhou spacecraft for China’s moon-landing mission passes landmark test flight
China has completed the inaugural test flight of its...
Space application for ITMA Asia + CITME 2026 opens
Shanghai – Space application for the 2026 edition of...
Yanmar, Chia Tai and XAG Empower Thai Agriculture through Innovation
Bang Nam Priao District, Chachoengsao Province, Thailand – On...
bitsensing Signs MOU with IKIO Technologies to Advance AI-Based Traffic Monitoring on India’s Expressways, Highways and Municipal Areas
Backed by proven success in South Korea and Europe,...

December 5th, 2016
Europe Takes Off for Space

“Europe’s ambitions in space have received another boost today and we applaud ESA’s decisions to furtjer develop Europe in space. European citizens will benefit greatly from our new innovative solutions,” said Nicolas Chamussy, Head of Space Systems, on decisions by ministers from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) 22 member states. At their meeting on 1-2 December in Lucerne, Switzerland, the ESA Ministerial Council committed to invest a total of € 10.3 billion in space activities for the next couple of years to ensure that Europe remains a strong, independent and competitive player in the space sector. Airbus shares ESA’s objectives based on the vision of a ‘United Space in Europe’.

Following successes and agreements on the Ariane 6 programme, Airbus Defence and Space is particularly pleased by the ESA space ministers’ commitment to manned space activities, notably their green light for ESA to start working on a second European Service Module for the Orion exploration programme. This European contribution will provide the future US-manned capsules Orion with power and propulsion. Airbus is already prime contractor of the first European Service Module for NASA’s Orion spacecraft. The first un-crewed mission, Exploration Mission-1, will be launched in 2018, followed by the first crewed mission to be launched in 2021.

Airbus is also encouraged by ESA’s commitment to pursue a variety of science missions like the ExoMars programme with Russia, which includes a European-built rover to explore the surface of Mars. With these ESA Ministerial Council commitments, Airbus Defence and Space can continue to develop and launch missions like JUICE to Jupiter, BepiColombo to Mercury, Solar Orbiter and CHEOPS to explore exoplanets along with the NASA-led James Webb Space Telescope that will replace Hubble in 2018.

ESA’s decision to keep investing in Telecommunication technologies with more than a billion-euro series of developments in partnership with European industry for multiple satellite and ground station partnerships will benefit citizens on a daily basis.

Equally the robust commitment to fund ESA’s Earth Observation Envelope Programme which will develop, launch and operate several missions in the coming years like BioMass and FLEX, and already prepare EU’s Copernicus second generation especially for measuring the dangerous greenhouse gas CO2. All these missions will provide invaluable data for monitoring climate change and help future policy decisions within Europe.