CSTS had completed an initial study phase, which lasted 18 months from September 2006 to spring 2008, before the project was shut down before an ESA member state conference in November 2008.

[2] In 2009, Russia decided it would go with a version of the original design of the CSTS and renamed it the Prospective Piloted Transport System (PPTS).

[4] Since early 2013, ESA and NASA have begun cooperation on developing the European Service Module for the current version of the Orion spacecraft.

In 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration, a program that included the United States return to the Moon by 2020 and a crewed mission to Mars by 2030.

Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA's General Director stated with regard to this rejection by NASA: "I have been told by Mike Griffin and Marburger that the CEV is not for international cooperation.

On June 13, 2006 the press reported that the winged Kliper project had been replaced by a study to develop a capsule under the Advanced Crew Transportation System program that ESA would fund.

[10][11] This rejection by ESA notwithstanding, Kliper was a Russian program that could still have been funded entirely by FKA – although this was unlikely if Russia and Europe would really have gone forward with the CSTS concept together.

"We are now entering a phase of working with the Russians where we will establish a preliminary design of the vehicle, establish all the legal framework for the operation, delineate the work share for the parties, and outline the aspects of development," said Manuel Valls, head of Policy and Plans Department in ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity, and Exploration Program.

[citation needed] Jean-Jacques Dordain announced on the Farnborough Air show on July 25, 2006, that the collaborative study together with Roscosmos on the ACTS spacecraft would begin in September 2006 and end early in 2008, "So in 18 months' time we will have got[sic] a proposal to make to our ministers for the development of such a vehicle.

"[6] This means that CSTS would have had a tight mass budget, as only launchers with a maximum payload capacity in the class of Ariane 5, Proton or Angara will be available for a launch.

[16] These performance adaptions would entail the use of a composite solid rocket casing, and upgrades to the Vulcain Mk III and Vinci (ECSB) engines.

This proposal was presented to ESA's governing body at its meeting in November 2008 and received funding for an initial development phase of a cargo return vehicle that may be ready by 2017.

[17][18] In January 2013, NASA announced that ESA would build the service module for the Orion test flight Artemis 1, which is a major step in international cooperation in deep space exploration.