THE much anticipated marriage between two future space missions to look for Earth-like planets around other stars has been called off. But one of the partners is to go it alone.
Once described as an engaged couple, the European Space Agency’s Darwin and NASA’s Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) aimed to launch a small fleet of about eight spacecraft, working together to simulate a single giant telescope. With money tight on both sides of the Atlantic, an equal collaboration seemed the only way to achieve the planned 2015 launch.
Now, however, ESA may have found both the will and the way…
