Posted: Wed, May 7, 2003, 10:38 AM ET (1438 GMT)
The European Space Agency's Rosetta comet mission, whose launch was delayed from January until at least 2004 because of launch vehicle concerns, may never get off the ground unless ESA comes up with additional funding not currently available, Space News reported in its print edition this week. Rosetta was scheduled to launch in January but was grounded because of concerns with the Ariane 5 launch vehicle, a new version of which failed on its first flight in December. The spacecraft is now tentatively planned for launch next February, but requires an additional 70 million euros (US$80 million) to cover the costs of storing the spacecraft and replanning the mission. That extra cost, as well as overruns in several other ESA science missions such as SMART-1, Planck, and Herschel, have left ESA's science budget 140 million euros (US$160 million) short. ESA Science Director David Southwood told Space News he was unwilling to delay the other missions, which would incur further cost overruns down the road, in order to save Rosetta, and has appealed to ESA Director-General Antonio Rodota to find extra funding from other ESA programs to salvage Rosetta. The fate of Rosetta may be decided at a meeting of ESA's Science Program Committee in mid-May or at the ESA ministerial meeting scheduled for late this month.

Related Links:

•  ESA Rosetta web site