USA Today: NASA Administrator Michael Griffin encouraged Europe on Thursday to develop its own manned spaceship, giving the world — and particularly
the United States — another way of getting to the International Space Station.

While Griffin has long encouraged Europeans to join NASA's space exploration program to send people back to the moon and then on to Mars, his latest remarks mark a step up in encouraging the Europeans' space exploration with their own ship to take people into space, said John Logsdon, director of space policy at George Washington University.

"Having more capability to get to orbit and having the second capability by an ally rather than the tense relationship with China or Russia would be a positive thing," Logsdon said.

It would be especially useful if the European ship is ready for the five-year gap when space shuttles are grounded in 2010, he said. But, he added that it was highly unlikely that the Europeans can get a human-rated ship to space "in time to be much of a help" for that gap.