euesa1-7, Exercise 3: No European crew spacecraft

Model answer:

Europe planned a small spaceplane, Hermes, in the 1980s, but cancelled it in the early 1990s because of the cost. It has not built a crew vehicle since.

Instead, ESA astronauts have flown on the American Space Shuttle, on Russian Soyuz rockets and, more recently, on American commercial capsules. ESA is also building the service module for NASA's Orion capsule under the Artemis programme, in return for flight opportunities for European astronauts (check the current status).

Check each date and arrangement in ESA's own pages.