Since 2004, ESA had been in talks with Roscosmos on cooperation for the development of Kliper, the Russian successor project to the Soyuz spacecraft, which has been in service since 1967.[8] While ESA's management was enthusiastic about this cooperation, their member states turned down funding for a design and collaboration study in December 2005, mainly because certain member states felt that ESA would just be a minor industrial contributor to the program, while Russia would actually develop and design the Kliper spacecraft.