NASA enlists EU to send humans around moon

The European Space Agency has agreed to supply key components for a NASA mission to take humans around the moon as early as 2021.

The European Space Agency agreed to help a NASA mission to take humans around the moon within the next few years, the first time astronauts have gone beyond a low orbit around Earth since 1972.

The European Space Agency and aerospace company Airbus have already delivered a propulsion and supply module for an unmanned flight of NASA's new Orion spacecraft next year and said it had now agreed to build a module for a second, manned mission that will fly around the moon as early as 2021.

Orion is eventually intended to expand human exploration to deep-space destinations such as Mars or asteroids.