ESA to Purchase SpaceX Crew Dragon Mission to ISS

The European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Josef Aschbacher announced on 19 March that the agency intends to purchase a dedicated SpaceX Crew Dragon flight to the International Space Station (ISS) for its astronauts. In November 2022, ESA announced its newest class of five career astronauts. Under the current barter agreement with NASA, ESA has secured long-duration missions to the ISS for just two of the five, namely Sophie Adenot, who is currently aboard the station, and Raphaël Liégeois, who is still awaiting a crew assignment. With the ISS set to be decommissioned in 2030 and deorbited soon after, ESA is unlikely to secure additional long-duration missions to the station before its retirement. More

(Source: European Spaceflight - Mar 23)