Record ESA budget – Germans soon on the moon?
The future of space travel: Germany invests 5.4 billion euros in the ESA. And: A German should be flying to the moon within this decade.
Berlin (dpa/d.de) – Germany remains the largest contributor to the European Space Agency (ESA) and is providing a record sum of 5.4 billion euros. Research Minister Dorothee Bär spoke of a paradigm shift at the ESA: ”This is how we ensure sovereignty in space and generate competitiveness and value creation in the German economy – in space travel and beyond.”
The ESA also announced that a German, a French and an Italian astronaut should be travelling to the moon in the coming years as part of the US Space Agency NASA’s Artemis Programme. The astronauts involved are geophysicist and vulcanologist Alexander Gerst and materials scientist Matthias Maurer, who are members of the ESA astronaut team. “The moon is a massive dream for every astronaut”, Maurer believes. The announcement of this mission is also a sign of Europe’s significant role in space travel. It was awarded three places for these trips to the moon because the ESA is participating in Artemis.
