An article in the July 16 issue (page 34) incorrectly stated the Franco-German cost estimate for a next-generation European launcher, which is $5-8 billion. In addition, the article should have indicated that the U.K. investment in a national space technology program is funded at £10 million ($15.5 million).

Budget and political decisions made in Berlin, Brussels and Washington will help shape the global aerospace industry. So it was not surprising that an undercurrent of anxiety ran through the recent Farnborough air show (see p. 43). Uncertainty from a financial crisis in Europe, potentially hefty cuts to U.S. defense spending, and slower economic growth in Asia and Latin America have put buyers and suppliers on edge.

The powerful rocket engine developed in the 1960s to launch the first men to the Moon could be reprised in the 2020s as the powerplant for strap-on boosters that NASA hopes to use in heavy-lift human missions to Mars. (Image: NASA)

Three veteran space travelers are settling in on return visits to the International Space Station, after their Soyuz launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Germany, France, Italy and Spain each are investing in optical and radar systems that add up to roughly $3 billion.

NASA is already angling for a fourth U.S.-side crew member and planning upgrades to improve research efficiency.

As Earthbound researchers prove slow to realize the orbital capabilities available to them, top managers are beginning to worry that support for human spaceflight could wane

Pedro L. “Pete” Rustan, who made a daring escape from Fidel Castro's Cuba as a young man and went on to design U.S. reconnaissance satellites, send a spacecraft to the Moon and develop technology used in the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, died of cancer on June 28 at home in Woodbridge, Va., near Washington. He was 65.