It’s been a big last few weeks for the venerable European Space Agency (ESA), the organization charged with advancing the cause of space travel throughout the continent. Currently, everyone who’s anyone in the European air and space industries is at the prestigious Paris Air Show, which runs through June 21, and just last month the ESA selected its latest crop of rookie astronaut candidates, including two Italians, a Frenchman, a German, a Dane and an Englishman, Tim Peake, who has been dubbed “Major Tim” by the excited U.K. press. Continue reading »