EADS Astrium unveils European manned spaceship

It's been a great week for space geeks, what with the Phoenix Lander doing its Mars sniffing and toilet drama at the space station. Meanwhile, over in Europe, EADS Astrium Space Transportation is showing off a manned version of its Automated Transfer Vehicle (also known as the Jules Verne). This space vehicle has already been used to bring equipment to the International Space Station, but new designs reveal that Germany, France, and Italy are on board to retrofit the vehicle with seats and touch screens for humans. There's just one little problem -- the Jules Verne can't return non-humans (let alone humans) to Earth safely yet. Astrium is hoping to get the stage flying by 2013 on top of the Ariane 5 rocket in time for the end of the American Space Shuttle program in 2010, when it would replace it as the largest-payload space transport.

[superfresh @ May 28th 2008 9:40AM]

When I saw this pic, I got sick for a second. I thought I was in for another 30-minute, 20th anniversary Mac unboxing.

[zfurie @ May 28th 2008 9:41AM]

Looks too comfy for lift off. And where's the seatbelts???

[Alex Terry @ May 28th 2008 9:42AM]

Spot the 3Dconnexion logitech mouse. lol.

[Joseph @ May 28th 2008 1:27PM]

Is there any irony in the fact that the mouse is called the "SpacePilot"?

[Nastro @ May 28th 2008 9:44AM]

wow someone ripped of a cheesy scifi set.

[Flashpoint @ May 28th 2008 9:53AM]

Did BMW design this?

Its got 3 iDRIVES !

[fred @ May 28th 2008 10:04AM]

Only the Euros could cross a hipster lounge with a spaceship.

I can only assume Tony Sinclair will be the pilot and Tang will be replaced with Tanqueray.

[Brian @ May 28th 2008 10:14AM]

That looks way too home-built... blue lighting? Really? 3D puck controllers? Really?

[Richard @ May 28th 2008 10:15AM]

Whenever I see anything space related, I am always shocked and amazed at how "cheap" it looks. I think some of us have bedrooms/living rooms that look more high tech than this. I was Huntsville before the ISS went up and was about to tour the NASA facility where they were working on a couple of the modules. I couldn't get past all of the "tinfoil" and "paper" they were using to make those things.

Where's my solid metal interstellar spaceship?

[TC @ May 28th 2008 10:26AM]

Umm... is 2013 really "in time" to replace a program ending in 2010? I want a deadline like that.

[invictus1er @ May 28th 2008 11:44AM]

I think that may actually be Daft Punk's studio :3

[pharcyde @ May 28th 2008 12:05PM]

HAL: I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the EADS plant in Berlin in the year 2013. My instructor was Jean-Jacques Dordain, and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it I can sing it for you....It's called "Daisy."

[michael @ May 28th 2008 12:15PM]

Could you please read the article you are referring to before you post articles like this?

EADS plans to get return capabilities by 2013. Not for humans but for other stuff from the ISS. At the moment the ATV burns up with all the waste from the ISS in the Atmosphere and cannot return to Earth. (It has no heat shield, no parachutes, not the right shape.) EADS plans to bring humans into space and back by 2017, after 4 years of further development.

That way you would have great benefits for the ISS by 2013 (at the moment only the Soyuz spacecraft and the soon defunct Space Shuttle can return stuff and there are always three people stuffed in Soyuz with practically no additional space), and maybe even greater benefits by 2017 (another way to get humans to the ISS and back after the Space Shuttle is no more, next to the Russian Soyuz and possibly the American Orion). That is if Germany, France and Italy are interested. At the moment EADS is only asking them to fund the project.

The picture of the interior you posted here is a PR stunt (it says so right in the article of the BBC), the real thing would have less room (with all the equipment, an hatch and so on) and probably no touch screens. It definitely won’t look like that. If you wanted a somehow realistic photo of the future appearance you would have taken that from the outside. That’s closer to what the future spacecraft could look like. (It has the classical cone shape. Just like Apollo, Soyuz or now Orion. Nothing much you can do wrong with that.)

[Richard Walker @ May 28th 2008 12:52PM]

I was just about to say the same thing... would've thought they would actually read the article before posting it!

And for the rest of you talking about the decor...

"The interior is more PR-orientated. We have three leather benches in there; we have touch screens - we can show simulated flights on the monitors; but of course the accessible volume is a lot larger than the real vehicle, which would have lots of equipment, a docking port, and these kinds of things."

[pharcyde @ May 28th 2008 1:34PM]

Michael,

Way to poop on our parade, go away...no one needs party poopers like you.

PS - Looks like a killer multiplayer chamber....those screens need CS running! :)

[michael @ May 28th 2008 3:50PM]

The bullshit was with engadget. I certainly won’t blame the commenters. Party as much as you want. It’s just that facts are sometimes a nice thing to have.