NASA and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis) must strive harder to make full use of the International Space Station (ISS) if taxpayers are to recoup returns on its substantial assembly and annual operating costs, according to NASA Inspector General Paul Martin.

PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) has settled on the basic design of the Ariane 6, the next-generation launch vehicle that will succeed Europe’s heavy-lift Ariane 5. Known as the “Multi P Linear” concept, the launch vehicle will comprise four solid-fueled boosters that make up the rocket’s first and second stages, topped by a cryogenic third stage based on the Vinci engine, which is being developed by the Snecma motors division of France’s Safran as part of a midlife upgrade to the current Ariane 5, known as Ariane 5ME.

HOUSTON — Astronauts Chris Cassidy and Luca Parmitano extended power cabling across the outside of the International Space Station’s U.S. segment for a future Russian lab, pre-staged utility lines and hardware to deal with potential cooling and power system failures and retrieved external science experiments during a NASA-sponsored July 9 spacewalk.

PARIS — Arianespace will loft the Eutelsat 25B and Indian G-Sat 7 satellites together on an Ariane 5 by the end of August, following the launch of Europe’s Alphasat I-XL and India’s Insat 3D atop the heavy-lift rocket July 25. The missions will mark the third and fourth of a planned five Ariane 5 launches in 2013, says Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel, who took the helm of the European launch consortium in April.

NEW DELHI — The Indian space agency’s Mars Orbiter Mission is on target to lift off in the third week of October. “The Mars mission is getting ready at our Satellite Centre in Bengaluru [in southern India],” says Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan. “We are planning to start stacking [the launch vehicle] from July 29, and the launch will be any day from Oct. 21 from the spaceport at Sriharikota.” Following the launch, the mission is expected to take eight months to reach Mars.

Bucking their Republican counterparts and the Obama White House, Democrats on the House Science Committee are offering an “alternative” NASA reauthorization that sets a 15-year goal of landing humans on Mars.

NEW DELHI — India has raised doubts regarding the launch of its second robotic lunar mission — Chandrayaan II — due to development delays with its Russian-furnished lander. Due to launch next year, Chandraayan II will include an unmanned orbiter, a lander supplied by the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and a rover to be developed by India for in-situ scientific exploration of the lunar surface.

Telespazio has been awarded a €216 million ($277 million) contract by the European Satellite Service Provider, ESSP SAS, as part of the European Union’s Egnos satellite navigation overlay program.