Good result in hard times leaves agency with full programme and long horizon

摘要

After the February maiden flight of its new light launcher, Vega, the November budget conclave of space and science ministers was always going to be the European Space Agency's most anxious fixture of 2012. In the end, Vega launched without a hitch and the Naples ministerial meeting ended with a sigh of relief from ESA. Although conceding that member states' €10 billion ($12.9 billion) contribution agreement represents a "flat cash budget" during the next five years, ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain says he "can manage with that", promising to continue his push to make ESA more efficient without cutting into the expertise he believes gives it the edge in technologies such as meteorological observation and deep-space exploration probes.