In Depth - Spacetravel: Europe lifts off - Interview with German Astronaut Thomas Reiter - je 02.04.2008

But beyond commercial benefits, there's still that dream of putting a European astronaut into space in a European craft. And that requires a leap forward in the quality of any potential European transporter. We visited the people at SHEFEX -- a German Aerospace Center project that aims to develop a new heat shield for future space vehicles.