The European Space Agency (ESA) wants the International Space Station to keep flying at least through 2020…five years past its sceduled retirement.
Jean-Jacques Dordain, Dirctor General of ESA, says that science at the ISS is being hurt by uncertainty over its future. He says that scientists seem reluctant to propose new projects for a facility that [...]

With the scheduled retirement of the shuttle fast approaching, and the questionable ability of the United States to launch astronauts anytime soon after, Europe is looking toward Russia.
The Soyuz spacecraft, in operation since 1967, may soon be the only real alternative for European astronauts to get in to space. And, to ensure the accessibility to [...]

Right now, it’s only a study. And, considering the cost—and the difficulty these days of coming up with big money—it may never be built.
But Europe is looking at developing its own manned spaceflight capabilities. Currently, European astronauts can only get into space by hitching a ride on American or Russian spacecraft. (The Chinese fly their [...]

I must admit, I didn’t know a thing about this. In passing, in this article, it mentions the planned 2016 retirement of the International Space Station.
Retirement? So soon? We’re just about to complete building it!
Big meeting on future space station
The thrust of the article is that some groups—including the European Space Agency and Roscosmos (the [...]

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is getting company in the form of a repair crew from the shuttle Atlantis.
But the HST is also getting another kind of company: two more space telescopes were launched today. An Arianne 5 rocket put the European space telescopes, Herschel and Planck, into space.
Herschel has a 3.5m diameter mirror and [...]