ESA commits to extending 11 missions' space operations for 3 years

Another bit of very welcome bureaucratic news today: Europe is apparently of the mind (if "Europe" can, in any sense, be said to have a "mind") that science and technology will help to carry them out of tough economic times, and has made three-year commitments to continue the in-space operations of 11 missions through 2014. The missions include six led by ESA: Cluster, Integral, Planck, Mars Express, Venus Express, and XMM-Newton. And they include five on which ESA is a partner: international collaborative missions Hinode (with Japan), Cassini-Huygens, the Hubble Space Telescope, and SOHO (all with NASA), and science operations of ESA's Proba-2 technology demonstrator. You can read the full statement here.