Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Space19
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The headline budget proposal for the @esa #Space19+ Ministerial Council will be €12.8bn. The hope is to see the science budget lift by close to 10% after three years. Member states will have to agree this of course. 2 days of discussion/commitment in Seville, 27/28 Nov.
@esa Nasa Administrator Jim Bridenstine has written to Esa DG Jan Wörner to ask for more service modules to stick on the back of the future Artemis Orion capsules that have been ordered from Lockheed. The letter talks about a European astronaut walking on the Moon at some point.
The intention is that Europe will also participate in the Lunar Gateway's international habitat module and the communications module known as Esprit. The latter is the bit the UK is interested in. All assumes Gateway continues. My American friends will know more about this.
Behold! The finished #RosalindFranklin rover. A nine-month assembly but more than a decade of development by teams across Europe @esa, Russia @roscosmos and the USA @NASA as part of the @ESA_ExoMars project. bbc.co.uk/news/science-e… Great photo @MaxA_Photo! 
#RosalindFranklin is being bagged and boxed for shipment from Stevenage, UK, to Toulouse, France. Acoustic and thermal vacuum testing awaits. The rover has three outstanding items: its radioisotope heaters. Insertion will be just prior to launch next year. Photo by @MaxA_Photo
Meanwhile, in Turin today the cruise spacecraft and the descent module should be being combined for the first time at @Thales_Alenia_S. Once testing is complete, all elements go to another TAS facility in Cannes for a final fit-check before despatch to Baikonur.
