Europe pumps money into space

Ambiguous headline I know -- I couldn't resist, sorry.

Member states are going to pour ten billion Euro into the European Space Agency (Esa) funding, the BBC reports.

The budget is for the next three to five years, which is quite odd. If they run out of money after three years, what will they do for the remaining two? Anyway, the figure represents a "substantial increase in funding", according to the BBC.

From the article:

"The new money will help build new Earth observation satellites, maintain Esa's participation in the space station, and fund probes to the planets."