** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

Cool. That's the lander they deliberately filled with something like half the fuel, when they realized that they had to do something to stop the astronauts from landing - because, you know, they might :D

They could have landed but never have got back to the CSM. I don't know about you, but in that situation i would still be tempted.
 
Sweet, Europe may play part in the Orion project. Hopefully Europe will agree, could it even propel the project into something more international.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14986217
Europe is looking to play a significant role in America's plans for the manned exploration of deep space.

Nasa has detailed its vision for a huge new rocket system that could send astronauts to asteroids and even Mars.

European engineers believe they could contribute to this project by providing the propulsion unit that pushes the rocket's capsule to these locations.

Participation would require the agreement of European member states and a budget to fund the development work.

A formal proposal is likely to be presented for consideration by the bloc's space ministers when they meet next year in Italy.

One attraction is that it would almost certainly lead eventually to European astronauts being invited to take part in deep space missions.

If the project is approved, engineers would hope to have the propulsion unit, or service module, ready to fly on the American rocket's first test flight.

"The first launch is planned in 2017, and if we can get all the preparatory work done in time for getting a decision at the upcoming ministerial conference - we will be able to provide our share to the maiden flight. The development time would be tight, but possible," said Thomas Reiter, the director of human spaceflight at the European Space Agency (Esa).

Nasa's new Space Launch System (SLS) is a multi-billion-dollar venture to take humans beyond the International Space Station (ISS) and the confines of low-Earth orbit.
Click to expand...
 
PermaBanned said:
I've not seen anything that suggests that the ATV derived unit is the 'cheap option'? Simply an option...
Click to expand...

It msut be a cheap option from NASAs point of view, as ESA would pay for development and build rather than NASA. To the tune of several hundred million. Although still drop in the ocean to total cost.
 

And it's all over in 3 minutes... :eek:

Beautiful, do the Russian's still have one more module to add and that's pretty much it? You just can't imagine that perhaps within the next decade it could be flown into the Atlantic. There must be some way of preserving it, perhaps with ion engines to move it into a higher orbit, out the way of other satellites and free of atmospheric drag. Fanciful, yes. And it will never happen. But with Mir i's destruction was sad. With this, and the amount of work that has gone into this it's nothing short of a crime.
 
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