MILAN — The European Space Agency signed a contract with OHB to begin work on an asteroid mission, but a decision on full funding for the mission is still more than a year away. In a ceremony during the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) here Oct. 17, officials with ESA and OHB Italia signed a contract worth 63 million euros ($68 million) for preparatory work on a mission called Ramses, or Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety, to the asteroid Apophis ahead of that asteroid’s close flyby of the Earth in…
