Sweden has joined Aurora, the preparatory European space exploration programme, as other European Space Agency nations increase their contributions. ESA now has all of the €40 million ($53 million) it originally requested for Aurora.
Part of the 2005 budget approved at an ESA council meeting on 15 December, the Aurora programme is now fully funded until the end of this year. "Now only Germany is missing and the door is open to them," says the space agency. "We hope they will join by the end of the year. Sweden is giving €500,000 and Canada, a co-operating state, is giving more money."
Italy is the largest contributor at around €12.5 million, followed by the UK with €5.5 million. France has increased its share from €2.5 million to about €5 million.
The contributions of Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands amount to €4 million and the remaining €12.5 million will come from nine other ESA states.
The funding increase enables industrial activities to continue and allows further work on preparing the full programme proposal. By year end, the agency is expected to approve the fully fledged Aurora programme. The first invitations to tender for industrial contracts will be issued in February. These include work on the ExoMars mission and Mars Sample Return missions.
Source: Flight International