Courtesy of the invaluable Open Europe daily press digest, we learn from Le Figarothat the "colleagues" have been plotting their next moves in developing a fully-fledged space policy, with a decision to allocate space spending a specific "budget line" in the EU budget.

This took place during a meeting in Kourou, French Guiana, home of the French Ariane space rocket launcher, where 27 ministers from EU member states warbled happily about wanting to make Europe "a global actor" in space policy.

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Could it be that the "colleagues" are simply trying to get back to their home planet ?

Those must be the ones spotted on the other side of the moon?

I travelled on a Russian ship to Australia in 1972 - the Khabarovsk. Each deck was adorned with a different aspect of Soviet 'achievement'. The dining room deck was all about the Soviet achievement on space. The heads deck was illustrated with the Soviet achievement in engineering - and so on.

Needless to say the ship sprang a leak and we had to book flights from Jakarta.

The EU sooooooooo reminds me of the SU.