NASA chief: Europe should build own manned spaceship
PARIS -- NASA Administrator Michael Griffin encouraged Europe on Thursday to develop its own manned spaceship, giving the world — and particularly the United States — another way of getting to the International Space Station.
Europe became "a full-fledged space power" when flight controllers at a European Space Agency center guided an unmanned cargo ship, called Jules Verne, to the International Space Station in April, successfully delivering food, water and clothes, he said.
Griffin said "it would be a small step" to develop that technology into "an independent European human spaceflight capability"
"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," he told a gathering of European researchers and space executives at the French parliament.
The space station will need to rely on these unmanned spacecraft for supplies, tools and science experiments once NASA's space shuttles stop flying in 2010. NASA's next-generation spacecraft, the Orion capsule, won't be ready for manned flight until 2015.
In the meantime, NASA will have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to Russia for a lift to the space station.
Arianespace Marketing Director Philippe Berterottiere, whose 57-meter (187-foot) high unmanned Ariane 5 rocket launched the Jules Verne, told The Associated Press it would be "quite easy" to develop a manned capsule, with development costs of around euro2-3 billion (US$3-4.5 billion).
Griffin told journalists he is "very concerned" about the impending lack of a U.S. shuttle. He said the situation differs from the six-year gap between the last Apollo flight in 1975 and the first shuttle flight in 1981 because "the advanced nations of the world now have a substantial space asset" to maintain and protect: the International Space Station.
Griffin also encouraged Europe to join the U.S. in its Mars exploration plans. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in February he wants Europe to work with the United States on the project.
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