After cancelling a call for proposals in December for a commercial cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) that was intended to meet its obligations related to the station’s Common System Operations Costs (CSOC), the European Space Agency (ESA) has outlined a revised barter arrangement with NASA.
Under the CSOC framework, all ISS partners have a shared responsibility to contribute to the station’s general upkeep, including cargo and crew transportation. In the past, ESA has met its obligations through cargo transportation services using the Automated Transfer Vehicle and, more recently, by supplying service modules for NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
In October 2025, ESA published a call for commercial cargo transport services to the ISS to continue meeting its CSOC obligations. With a requirement to deliver up to 5,000 kilograms of pressurised cargo by 2028, the agency was effectively forced to open the call to US-based providers, with Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft emerging as the most likely option.
On 17 December, the agency cancelled the call, citing “the implementation of programmatic adjustments.” While there were initially no further details regarding the cancellation, during a press conference following ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher’s annual briefing on 8 January, Daniel Neuenschwander, Director of the agency’s Human and Robotic Exploration programme, briefly outlined a revised barter arrangement that would remove the need for a dedicated commercial cargo mission.
“In this new barter scheme, we now have a reduced requirement with regard to commercial transportation services, and we have introduced the use of the LEO Cargo Return Services as part of the deal. Meaning that the United States will [allow] Europe to deliver LEO cargo return services as part of the ISS cooperation. I think this is excellent news.”
According to Neuenschwander, the agency will publish a new call for proposals for industry to deliver on this new barter agreement.
ESA initially announced its LEO Cargo Return Services initiative in May 2023, with the aim of fostering the development of a commercially operated European spacecraft capable of transporting cargo to and from low Earth orbit. In May 2024, the agency awarded Phase 1 contracts to The Exploration Company and Thales Alenia Space Italia.
During the agency’s Ministerial Council meeting in November 2025, Member States committed to fully funding Phase 2 of the initiative, which includes provisions for two providers to conduct demonstration missions to the ISS by mid 2029. Speaking to European Spaceflight at the time, Neuenschwander revealed that Member States had also committed to serving as an anchor customer for four additional flights following the successful completion of the demonstration missions. These flights will likely be part of the new barter agreement with NASA.
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With a requirement to deliver up to 5,000 kilograms of pressurised cargo by 2028, why did ESA negotiate such a high delivery obligation? Without knowing if the program would get funded, and knowing such programs are likely to get delayed and run into issues?
Couldn’t ESA have found ways to use this additional up mass initially to increase its own experiments volume? And only include it in NASA barter after the vehicles were proven – if the ISS is still around? Or made a barter agreement with Axiom, where ESA would deliver some of their passengers luggage, in exchange for additional ESA astronaut flights. And laid the foundation for similar agreements to their commercial station.
The agency was effectively forced to open the call to US-based providers, with Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft emerging as the most likely option.
That wouldn’t have been such a bad option; Cygnus already uses Thales Alenia pressure vessels. And is vehicle agnostic, so with proper loading infrastructure could launch on Ariane 6, giving ESA a fast and reliable start to build up experience.
Northrop also has agreements for delivering to a future commercial station, so this might have given ESA a way in. And NG has facilities in Europe, so it might be able to offer a modified version with European components build in Europe.
Why develop new vehicles/capsules again and again? ATV was not good? ATV was not able to be evolutioned? How many studies, designs, prototipes, test, etc. of vehicles have been considered or developed by ESA? Why, after all of this, we still don’t have ANY vehicle, not for charge nor for humans?
This subject is not very easy at all to be understood…