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21 November 2012
(NAPLES) - Members of the European Space Agency (ESA) on Wednesday approved a multi-year budget of € 10 billion ($12.3 billion), ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain said, hailing this as a "big success."
Spending levels are largely unchanged compared with the outgoing budget, but "it's a big success in spite of the economic situation," Dordain said after a two-day strategy meeting of the 20-nation agency.
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Image above: European ministers and officials pose during the European Space Agency (ESA) Council Meeting on November 20, 2012 in Naples (Italy). Credit: AFP/Getty Images.
Dordain had proposed three-year spending of € 12 billion ($15 billion) but had said last week he would be satisfied with "something around € 10 billion," meaning that current levels would be maintained. In the event, spending will be just over € 10 billion, he said.
Many of ESA's members are struggling with constrained budgets, and many proposed space projects have been sidelined in the light of close scrutiny. The meeting was the first at ministerial level in four years. The budget is averaged out over three years, but many programmes can be longer or shorter than this.
Ariane 5 to get an upgrade
The budget included missions and programs ongoing, such as the ExoMars mission, which was originally a combined program between NASA and ESA, with the withdrawal of the NASA following budget cuts of the American Administration, this program as nearly canceled. Thanks to the Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS), which has joined the ExoMars program, and it saved and maintained.
ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter would search for atmospheric methane at Mars
The "Mars budget" (initial budget between ESA and NASA) of about $580 million in 2010 would be radically reduced by over $200 million, thereby necessitating the end of NASA’s participation in ExoMars. These cuts will have a devastating impact on American scientists and engineers working on Mars missions.
The ESA's budget includes funding for a new launcher, called Ariane 5 ME, which would start to fly in 2017, and work towards a successor, Ariane 6, whose maiden flight would be in 2021 or 2022.
ESA proposal for an adapted Ariane 5 launcher and proposal for Ariane 6. Image Credit: ESA
It also funds ESA's continuing participation in the International Space Station to 2020.
For more information about European Space Agency (ESA), visit: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/
Images, Video, Text, Credits: ESA / Arianespace / AFP / Getty Images / Euronews / Orbiter.ch Aerospace.
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