Soyuz for 6 people

> The EU *is* thinking about manned spaceflight in the
> not-so-distant future.
> See
> http://www.space.com/news/european_space_031113.html
They've been *thinking* about manned flight for about
30 years now! (ELDO once had dreams of manned
missions).

Personally, I think it will take the EU not ESA to be
able to push forward a manned space program if it were
ever to happen. The reasons for this is that I do not
think ESA operating policies can handle such a large
scale program. It was hard enough for them to
organize to do Galileo.

> . Also, I would say
> that their remarkably big re-supply ship for the ISS
>
(http://www.esa.int/export/esaHS/SEM462VZJND_index_0.html)
> is halfway in the
> direction of an European manned ship.
>
The ATV will be a wonderful space tug, but it is far
from what is needed for manned space flight. The only
advantage it has is that it is able to be pressurized,
similar to that of the progress M resupply ships. It
is still a long way from having all the environmental
controls and safety features which are required from
manned flight.

Ryan Z