Rob Coppinger of Hyperbola blog points to a presentation (PDF) that explains why ESA and Roskosmos recently ended an 18-month study on whether to jointly build a new Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS).
The presentation by Marco Caporicci of ESA’s Human Spaceflight Directorate indicates the two sides were unable to agree on a division of work that allow them to get what they wanted out of the CSTS project.
Speaking in Paris, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin urged European space officials and executives to build on the success of the Automated Transfer Vehicle to develop a human space vehicle, the Associate Press reports. “We welcome the development of independent European capabilities in space to provide redundant systems in the event of failure of any one partner’s capabilities,” Griffin said, referring to the International Space Station. NASA will retire the space […]
