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ESA Hikes Budget, Takes Steps To Send Astronaut to Chinese Space Station
http://spacenews.com/esa-hikes-budget-takes-steps-to-send-astronaut-to-chinese-space-station/
ESA Hikes Budget, Takes Steps To Send Astronaut to Chinese Space Station
by Peter B. de Selding — January 16, 2015
PARIS — The European Space Agency is actively working with China with the goal of placing a European astronaut on the Chinese space station as part of a relationship that is likely to grow now that ESA governments have made China one of three long-term strategic partners for the agency, ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain said Jan. 16.
For the moment, Dordain said, there are no specific plans for an ESA astronaut mission aboard China’s space station. But government ministers from the 20-nation ESA — to become 22 nations in the coming weeks with the addition of Hungary and Estonia — in December for the first time formally listed China alongside the United States and Russia as core ESA strategic partners.
ESA astronauts have visited China’s astronaut-training facilities and several are learning to speak Chinese as part of ESA’s partnership with the China Manned Space Flight Office, Dordain said.
Addressing a press briefing here on ESA’s plans for 2015, Dordain said the agency’s available funding is up 8 percent from 2014, to 4.43 billion euros, or $5.32 billion at current exchange rates.
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ESA Hikes Budget, Takes Steps To Send Astronaut to Chinese Space Station
by Peter B. de Selding — January 16, 2015
PARIS — The European Space Agency is actively working with China with the goal of placing a European astronaut on the Chinese space station as part of a relationship that is likely to grow now that ESA governments have made China one of three long-term strategic partners for the agency, ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain said Jan. 16.
For the moment, Dordain said, there are no specific plans for an ESA astronaut mission aboard China’s space station. But government ministers from the 20-nation ESA — to become 22 nations in the coming weeks with the addition of Hungary and Estonia — in December for the first time formally listed China alongside the United States and Russia as core ESA strategic partners.
ESA astronauts have visited China’s astronaut-training facilities and several are learning to speak Chinese as part of ESA’s partnership with the China Manned Space Flight Office, Dordain said.
Addressing a press briefing here on ESA’s plans for 2015, Dordain said the agency’s available funding is up 8 percent from 2014, to 4.43 billion euros, or $5.32 billion at current exchange rates.
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