The European Nations officials, at the end of a 2-day budget meeting in Seville, Spain, have said that European nations have given a green light with a significant funding boost to almost all of the proposals laid out by the European Space Agency (ESA) for its future program. France’s research minister Frédérique Vidal, after the meeting of ministers from all 22 ESA member states, said in a press conference that this decision has reaffirmed their common ambition for Europe.

ESA Chief Jan Wörner commented, “You see a happy director general in front of you.” He also mentioned that the agency has spent 2 years developing the current proposal and lobbying members for support. He joked that everyone’s approval is required as NASA has one government and we have 22. He clarified that all the ministers have gone through the 47-page list of programs and it cleared all their doubts leading to the decision that “not a single program had to stop.” ESA managers have earlier come away disappointed from previous ministerial meetings (takes place roughly every 3 years) as they must cancel or slow down programs that didn’t win enough support.

In the last 25 years, this rise ( more than 20%) in the ESA’s 3-year budget is the largest boost the agency has seen. This rise in the budget will allow ESA to concurrently run two major orbiting observatories to look at x-rays and gravitational waves plus they can now join NASA in returning samples from Mars and expand its monitoring of Earth’s environment to help tackle the climate crisis. The budget will also help them develop a reusable vehicle to take cargo to and from space.