The space manifest of European astronauts, who have been launched to the International Space Station dozens of times in the last few years with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle, has been a matter of curiosity. European astronauts want to have their own independent vehicle to reach the International Space Station.
As the interest in space increases by the European Union and the USA, astronauts need to do more space missions. Dozens of European astronauts are planned to be launched in vehicles operated by Russia and the United States in the coming years, but recently French and German astronauts have begun to oppose this monopoly.
European astronauts’ space manifesto
Thomas Pesquet and Matthias Maurer have repeatedly praised the Crew Dragon’s spaceflight and the rocket’s reusable nature, and to date have expressed no complaints. But as the new manifesto reveals, European leaders have to decide whether to step up spacecraft production if they want to become a space traveler.
Astronauts, who warned European leaders, complain that Europe’s space explorations do not reach even one tenth of NASA’s. In the manifesto, it was stated that Europe could lag behind:
“Europe; “While it is still at the forefront of many space endeavors, such as earth observation, navigation and space science, it lags behind in the increasingly strategic areas of space transportation and exploration.”
Soyuz in Russia, Shenzhou in China and NASA have SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. Also in a few years, the US space agency plans to add the Orion spacecraft and Boeing’s Starliner capsule to its fleet of manned spaceflight vehicles. Even India aims to develop crewed vehicles into low Earth orbit within the next two years.
The manifesto was published on the day of the Space Summit to discuss the European Space Agency’s strategy on issues such as space exploration and climate change. French President Emmanuel Macron and the new Director General of the European Space Agency Josef Aschbacher were among the speakers.
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