http://www.space.com/news/esa_bush_040115.html
European government space authorities applauded U.S. President George W. Bush's space exploration announcement, saying the Bush plan is a badly needed roadmap for how manned space flight proceeds after the international space station. A long-scheduled press briefing Jan. 15 by the European Space Agency (ESA) to announce the agency's 2004 budget and program priorities was all but hijacked by a discussion of what the Bush announcement means for Europe. ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain had to remind the packed meeting that ESA's annual January briefing was not timed to follow the Bush’s Jan. 14 speech declaration at NASA headquarters.on Jan. 14. "The president has lots of power, but not the power to determine when the calendar year begins," Dordain said, adding that the Bush-ordered redirection of NASA "is grand and good news for the space sector and thus for ESA too." Dordain said ESA had been briefed by NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe on several occasions in the past several weeks, most recently on Jan. 14 before the Bush speech. He said that like NASA and the other partners in the international space station, ESA has been examining possible new ambitions that would come after the station. A series of studies of moon and Mars robotic efforts under ESA's small Aurora program had recently led to a recommendation that the moon should be ESA's next objective. The agency's manned space directorate, which also handles Europe's space station investment, recently produced a study called: "The Moon: the 8th Continent," that proposes robotic and, later, manned lunar missions. Dordain said it was only natural that the United States, as the world's biggest investor in space exploration and the world's richest nation, set the timetable for lunar and, later on, Mars exploration. Europe, he said, whose space budgets total less than one-third of NASA's, is not in a position to lead such a project. Jorg E. Feustel-Buechl, ESA's space station director, will add Aurora and related space exploration efforts to his office's responsibilities starting in April. In an interview, Feustel-Buechl said that while questions remain on the management of the international space station after NASA's planned 2010 retirement of the space shuttle, early indications are that NASA does not intend to leave its partners in the lurch in the still-unfinished orbital complex. In a chart NASA produced to accompany Bush's remarks, the agency makes clear it intends to continue financing the station until 2016, well beyond the shuttle-retirement date. A separate budget line on space station transportation is also funded beyond the shuttle's retirement. Feustel-Buechl said one question that will need to be resolved by the space station partners is how station crew transfers and cargo supplies will be conducted between the time the shuttle is taken out of service and the planned 2014 arrival of NASA's new Crew Exploration Vehicle. xponent International Cosmicon Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
