Photo by Edward Taylor

The Frankfurt Motor Show is bustling with scantily clad models in high, high heels who present carmakers new models. Volkswagen's Skoda decided against the models and opted for a more furry mascot. To present its new 4x4 crossover Yeti model, it hired the abominable snowman! Mom is never going to believe this...

Original Post Text:

-Maria Sheahan is a Reuters senior correspondent in Frankfurt.-

So far, Europe has left it up to the United States, Russia and China to send people into space. But almost 50 years after Russia's Yuri Gagarin made his first orbit around the earth, it's about time that Europe finally enter the playing field, some say.

"Europe cannot stay out of manned (space) flight forever," EADS unit Astrium Space Transportation's CEO Alain Charmeau said at the Paris Air Show. Europe has its own space agency, ESA; it has its own module on the International Space Station; and it has sent its astronauts into space as passengers on the spacecraft of others.

Launching its own manned spaceflight mission "is not a budgetary issue, it is a matter of political willingness," Charmeau said. His company, which makes space launchers that carry satellites or other items into space and could make a lunar lander, would be one of many that would benefit from the additional business.

Even outside the sphere of government-funded space programs, Charmeau said he expects to see more people going up into space, as paying tourists.

"I am really a supporter of space tourism," Charmeau said.

Astrium is building its own space plane for that market, but Charmeau cautioned that space tourism projects would have to wait until the financial crisis ends and investments are more readily available again. And Virgin Galactic has been eyeing space tourism as a major future market for a while as well.

So the call is clear: Europe, send your rocket men to space already!

So far, Europe has left it up to the United States, Russia and China to send people into space. But almost 50 years after Russia's Yuri Gagarin made his first orbit around the earth, it's about time that Europe finally enter the playing field, some say.

"Europe cannot stay out of manned (space) flight forever," EADS unit Astrium Space Transportation's CEO Alain Charmeau said at the Paris Air Show. Europe has its own space agency, ESA; it has its own module on the International Space Station; and it has sent its astronauts into space as passengers on the spacecraft of others.

Launching its own manned spaceflight mission "is not a budgetary issue, it is a matter of political willingness," Charmeau said. His company, which makes space launchers that carry satellites or other items into space and could make a lunar lander, would be one of many that would benefit from the additional business.

Even outside the sphere of government-funded space programs, Charmeau said he expects to see more people going up into space, as paying tourists.

"I am really a supporter of space tourism," Charmeau said.

Astrium is building its own space plane for that market, but Charmeau cautioned that space tourism projects would have to wait until the financial crisis ends and investments are more readily available again. And Virgin Galactic has been eyeing space tourism as a major future market for a while as well.

So the call is clear: Europe, send your rocket men to space already!

In 2004, the company said part of the problem was that there were not enough customers at its department stores, or at least those that were there were not spending enough. And consumers were not ordering enough goods from its hefty mail-order catalogs, Quelle and Neckermann.

This year, there are still "huge problem areas" Chief Executive Karl-Gerhard Eick said to shareholders last month. The company has changed its name, sold dozens of stores, dumped real estate, revamped its stores and tried to win more online customers for mail-order.

But here we are again. Fresh live TV spots with company representatives telling us how dire the situation is.  Same image, different year.  Not enough spending at its 120 stores, which sit squarely in the main shopping districts of German city centers.  So far, the company has been trying to lure more consumers by trading up and offering more premium brands and getting customers to spend more than they'd planned to when they walked into the store.  It has spent 3.1 billion euros on restructuring, with little to show for it.

Now that Metro is pushing to take over Arcandor's stores, the company's agony could finally come to an end.

(Reuters photo of Arcandor CEO Karl-Gerhard Eick)