First Images of Russian-European Manned Spacecraft

oliderid writes "The first official image of a Russian-European manned spacecraft has been unveiled. It is designed to replace the Soyuz vehicle currently in use by Russia and will allow Europe to participate directly in crew transportation.The reusable ship was conceived to carry four people towards the Moon, rivaling the US Ares/Orion system. This project is the Plan A for the European Space agency. The plan B is an evolution of the ATV proposed by a consortium of European companies led by Astrium."

Comments

What's the flippin' point?

[jambox]

This is not deliberate flamebaiting, but can somebody tell me why it is exactly that we're spending so much money on this stuff?

Come on, people have been to the moon. There ain't much going on there. People can't go to Mars, because it would be a one-way trip.

It's just too expensive and there's nothing to do up there that we couldn't do with robots. I blame science fiction shows. I think everyone has it lodged in their heads that we will all be flying around in spaceships within a few hundred years. Trust me, we will not. Much better to spend the billions and billions of dollars on lots of probes, better very-long-range telescopes and hell, poverty relief for those left on Earth? /rant