GRANADA : Shuttle Rival Sidelined
Europe’s ambitious answer to the U.S. space shuttle program--the Hermes space plane--faces a possible early demise when ministers from the 13-nation European Space Agency (ESA) meet next Monday and Tuesday in this Spanish city amid technological delays and budget problems that have put the project in limbo.
Under a budget to be presented at the Granada meeting by ESA Director-General Jean-Marie Luton, work on the project is expected to be limited to continued studies on related technologies. A plan to build a prototype may also be scrapped.
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