EU Looks to Make Major Increase in Space Spending

EU Reps Express Support for Big Investment in Exploration
Space News

Representatives from most of the 27 member governments of the European Union (EU) on Oct. 23 expressed support for a major, if still undefined, financial investment in space exploration alongside the European Space Agency (ESA) but conceded it will take a year before they are ready to set firm budget and policy goals.

Meeting here as part of the EU-ESA International Conference on Human Space Exploration, they said that by late 2010 they should be able to make initial decisions on a space exploration roadmap that includes robotic and manned missions in collaboration with the United States, Russia, Japan and other nations including China and India.

They also acknowledged that the United States, which they view as the natural coordinator of a major exploration initiative, will need the next 12 months to align U.S. space exploration objectives with NASA’s likely budget.

European Commission Vice President Guenter Verheugen, who has been a major force in putting space on the agenda of the commission, urged European governments to view space exploration as something more than a source of new technologies or other practical spinoffs.

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