Four astronauts ' three from NASA and one from the Canadian Space Agency ' are travelling inside the crew module at the top of the Orion spacecraft. The propulsion and life-support systems that are contained in its lower half were designed and built by aerospace company Airbus based in Leiden, the Netherlands, on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA). This European Service Module (ESM) is providing Orion's propulsion . It also provides the crew's life-support systems, such as water and air supplies, and maintains the module's temperature, all of which are powered by the module's four solar wings. Didier Schmitt, who heads ESA's future preparation team and is based in Cologne, Germany, says the module has been reported to perform flawlessly. 'The ESM has performed very well,' says Jonathan McDowell, a retired astrophysicist based in London. European participation is 'extremely significant', says Schmitt. 'NASA usually doesn't want to be dependent on anybody for something so...
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