NASA is expanding its push for commercial partnerships in space projects, with a call for proposals from private companies that may be able to use the agency’s lunar-landing know-how in exchange for rides to the surface of the Moon.

PARIS — Europe’s nearly one-year delay in finalizing the design of a service module expected to fly on NASA’s Orion multipurpose crew exploration vehicle will not hold up a planned test flight of the capsule slated for 2017, says European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain. “I have promised NASA that the delay in the service module preliminary design review (PDR) will not lead to a delay in delivery,” Dordain told journalists at an annual meeting where he detailed the agency’s €4.1 billion ($5.6 billion) budget for 2014.

PARIS — European Space Agency (ESA) member states like the idea of extending International Space Station (ISS) operations to 2024, as proposed by the Obama administration during an annual meeting of space agency chiefs in Washington Jan. 9-10. But ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain says the 20-nation space agency can do little more than voice support for the extension until it secures funding from member states for Europe’s continued participation in the ISS through the end of this decade.

Managers at NASA are generally pleased with the level of funding the agency received in the omnibus spending bill Congress adopted this week for the remainder of fiscal 2014, but they aren’t sure it will support the planned 2017 first flights of one or more commercial crew vehicles.

NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) is continuing to raise concerns about the agency’s efforts to re-establish U.S. human launch capabilities — both through commercial ventures and government-led initiatives to resume human deep space exploration — in its most recent annual assessment. The concerns, outlined Jan. 15 in the independent ASAP’s 2013 annual report, are focused on presumed underfunding as the two development initiatives mature.

HOUSTON — NASA’s chief scientist Ellen Stofan is among those pleased with the $17.6 billion top line for the agency included in the $1.1 trillion 2014 Omnibus appropriations bill making its way through Congress this week. The compromise spending plan that lifts NASA away from the 2013 sequester budget cuts includes $5.15 billion for science programs, or $133.4 million more than proposed by the White House for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

Top NASA officials took advantage of the recent gathering of space agency chiefs in Washington to look for ways to broaden cooperation with China, including rare direct talks with Chinese space leaders.

EUTELSAT 9B: International Launch Services (ILS) will launch Eutelsat 9B for Eutelsat Communications in 2015 on a Proton rocket, the Reston, Va., company said Jan. 15. Space Systems of Airbus Defense and Space will build the 5,300-kg (11,700-lb.) Ku-band satellite, which will be positioned at 9 deg. E. Long. to deliver service via 66 transponders.