PARIS Space leaders in Europe are confident that the proposals on the agenda of the European Space Agency’s ministerial summit this week will meet broad acceptance, although some projects may not be approved as recommended. “Some small programs may be scaled back or held until later, but we are optimistic that there will be a very positive outcome,” said Alan Cooper, director of policy and finance at the British National Space Center (BNSC).

NEW YORK AlliedSignal’s opposition to BFGoodrich’s proposed acquisition of Coltec is proving to be a more serious obstacle than either of the merger hopefuls may have initially surmised. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana has granted AlliedSignal a preliminary injunction blocking the transaction from going forward, at least through mid-July.

ARLINGTON, VA. NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin scolded the U.S. launch industry last week for a lack of long-term vision and called for new design approaches to achieve revolutionary improvements in America's launch fleet. In an address that took place between the third consecutive failure of the Titan IV and the second failure of the Delta III in two missions, Goldin said the U.S. must stop relying on incremental improvements that yield only small advances in launch performance.

Paris The orbital X-ray observatory Abrixas suffered a power failure after launch, threatening Germany’s small scientific satellite program with a second consecutive mission failure—and again calling into question the validity of the “faster, better, cheaper” philosophy that increasingly holds sway in the world space science community.