Representatives from the European Space Agency’s 20 member states and Canada approved a 10 billion euro budget (13 billion U.S. dollars) for 2013-2017 during their Ministerial Council last week in Naples, Italy. Unlike NASA, the ESA sets its budget levels for multiple years at a time, requiring mandatory member participation in some programs and optional contributions to others. Budget highlights include Ariane rocket development, a variety of planetary and Earth science missions, and the development of a service module for NASA’s Orion crew capsule.

The Orion module will be part of a trade to offset some of the ESA’s required International Space Station contributions. The United Kingdom, which rarely opens its wallet for human spaceflight, is chipping in 20 million euros for the project. As the BBC’s Jonathan Amos reports, the UK hopes the investment will bolster its technology sector, and ensures the country will play a role in NASA’s efforts to send humans beyond Earth orbit for the first time since 1972.

The service module will be based on the ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle, which regularly ferries supplies to the ISS. It will debut on Exploration Mission 1 in 2017, an uncrewed trip around the moon that begins with the inaugural flight of the Space Launch System. This will be the second test of the Orion capsule, which is scheduled to be launched by a Delta IV Heavy in 2014 during Exploration Flight Test 1.