The European Space Agency's ministerial meeting and the maiden flight of NASA's Orion deep-space capsule capped a topsy-turvy 2014 - a year marked by controversy and failures - on a positive note. Both successes must be qualified, however - mostly in Orion's case given the reality that the capsule won't fly again until 2018. ESA's Dec. 2 ministerial, meanwhile, though successful in resolving some difficult funding issues, raised new questions about the agency's future role in the international space station.
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