Situations vacant: Astronauts wanted, must have the 'right stuff'. What is that?

[Rick]

The European Space Agency is doing its first major trawl for recruits for more than a decade. An expected 50,000 applicants will be whittled down to four astronauts destined to live on the International Space Station. What are they looking for?

Being an astronaut is the opposite of being a learner driver. The learner trains a few days for many years of driving. The astronaut can train for years for a few days in space.

Since the beginning of space travel, people have asked themselves this question: what do you have to be like to be an astronaut?

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7360736.stm

[Rick]

A plan for a manned spacecraft has been announced by the European firm EADS.

Its Astrium division has designed a variant of its space station freighter that could also transport astronauts.

Limited details were released in Bremen, Germany, on Tuesday; further information and a mock-up are expected at the Berlin Air Show this month.

Europe does not currently possess its own human space transportation system and is reliant on the Americans and the Russians to get its people into orbit.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7398517.stm

[Rick]

A model of a proposed European manned spaceship has gone on show at the Berlin Air Show.

The design, which has been produced by EADS Astrium, is based on the unmanned "Jules Verne" freighter recently sent to the International Space Station.

Astrium says a crewed version of the truck is a logical evolution, and could fly in the next decade if it received support from European governments.

Key states - Germany, France, and Italy - are said to be very interested.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7419793.stm

[Rick]

Proposals for a European-built manned spacecraft have been formally unveiled in Berlin, with some backing from the German government. Backers of the plan hope to see the European Space Agency (ESA) using Euro technology to carry astronauts into orbit, rather than Russian Soyuz rockets.

As reported previously, the mock-up now on view at the Berlin Air Show is a modified "Jules Verne" Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) cargo module, of the type which has just begun carrying supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). Pan-European aerospace company EADS, whose space arm Astrium makes the ATV and the Ariane V heavy-lift rocket, hopes that the ESA will fund a manned Jules Verne and launch it using Ariane boosters.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/28/esa_jules_verne_manned_ship_plan/

[Rick]

four astronauts destined to live on the International Space Station

...and a frind of mine has actually submitted an application!     

[Ian]

...and a frind of mine has actually submitted an application!     

It's not MarkS is it, he's been taking lots of images lately, maybe he wants an even closer look

[Rick]

Nope. She's married, has two kids, and has been known to write and sing songs about biochemistry.

[Ian]

who, Mark??? Who'd have thought it, eh

[Rick]

NASA chief Michael Griffin has urged Europe to build its own manned space vessels, saying that he is "worried" about the period from 2010 to 2015. During those five years, no Western nation will have technology able to carry people into space.

"We welcome the development of independent European capabilities in space to provide redundant systems in the event of failure of any one partner's capabilities," Griffin told reporters in Paris yesterday.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/06/nasa_chief_says_spam_that_can/