{"id":36436,"date":"2026-03-25T12:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=36436"},"modified":"2026-03-25T12:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:31:13","slug":"esa-council-backs-astronaut-mission-asteroid-study-canada-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/esa-council-backs-astronaut-mission-asteroid-study-canada-ties\/","title":{"rendered":"ESA Council backs astronaut mission, asteroid study, Canada ties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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INTERLAKEN, Switzerland<\/strong> \u2013 The European Space Agency (ESA) wrapped up its 345th Council meeting with decisions aimed at bolstering Europe\u2019s role in human spaceflight, deepening international cooperation and advancing planetary defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two\u2011day meeting, hosted by Switzerland, saw ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and member states thank the Swiss delegation and Council Chair Renato Krpoun for their support. Delegates reviewed progress on implementing commitments made at the November 2025 ministerial meeting and discussed next steps in strengthening Europe\u2019s space capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the headline outcomes, the Council endorsed the EPIC mission concept, which foresees acquiring a Crew Dragon flight in early 2028 to provide regular opportunities for ESA astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Member states also approved cooperation with Japan\u2019s space agency JAXA on the Ramses mission to study asteroid Apophis, with Japan contributing instruments, solar arrays and a launcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada expanded its partnership with ESA by joining several programmes, including ACCESS, ERS\u2011EO, Moonlight and FutureNAV, following its largest subscription to ESA since 1979. The Council also reviewed preparations for the EU\u2019s next budget cycle, reiterating ESA\u2019s readiness to act as the technical agency for the EU Space Programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In space safety, ESA agreed to collaborate with the Carnegie Institution for Science to host its FlyEye\u20112 telescope in Chile, enhancing Europe\u2019s ability to track near\u2011Earth objects. Internally, Juan Carlos Cort\u00e9s Pulido of Spain was named the next Council Chair, with Slovenia\u2019s Tanja Permozer and Finland\u2019s Kimmo Kanto as Vice\u2011Chairs. Carole Mundell and Dietmar Pilz were confirmed for renewed terms as Directors of Science and Technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Council noted the first annual report from ESA\u2019s Ethics Ombudsperson, highlighting the agency\u2019s commitment to integrity, and approved the public release of two status reports on space transportation and ground systems. On the sidelines, ESA signed funding arrangements with Sweden and the UK to support joint projects with Ukraine\u2019s space agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decisions underscore ESA\u2019s push to expand Europe\u2019s presence in space while strengthening ties with international partners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INTERLAKEN, Switzerland \u2013 The European Space Agency (ESA) wrapped up its 345th Council meeting with decisions aimed at bolstering Europe\u2019s role in human spaceflight, deepening international cooperation and advancing planetary defence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,168],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news","category-policy"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image.webp",1100,650,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image-200x200.webp",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image-675x399.webp",675,399,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image-768x454.webp",750,443,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image.webp",750,443,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image.webp",1100,650,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image.webp",1100,650,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image.webp",1100,650,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image-870x570.webp",870,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image-600x650.webp",600,650,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image-600x600.webp",600,600,true],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image-760x490.webp",760,490,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image-550x360.webp",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image-95x65.webp",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image-640x650.webp",640,650,true],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image-96x96.webp",96,96,true],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/esa-image-150x89.webp",150,89,true]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a> Policy<\/a>","tag_info":"Policy","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36437,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36436\/revisions\/36437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}