Hermes

Mission Profile

Hermes was a proposed French-led ESA crewed spaceplane studied extensively from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s, designed to carry three astronauts and 4,500 kg of cargo to the planned Columbus space station using an Ariane 5 rocket. The 10-tonne lifting body vehicle would have been reusable for up to 30 flights and could perform on-orbit servicing missions, providing Europe with its first independent human spaceflight capability. The program was cancelled in 1992-1993 after costs escalated dramatically and feasibility studies revealed the design would need to be significantly enlarged with a corresponding loss of reusability, making the project economically non-viable compared to cooperative agreements with Russia and NASA.