On 14 May 2008, aerospace company EADS Astrium and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), announced that they were actively pursuing a development project with the aim of adapting the ATV into a crew transportation system. In the envisioned configuration, the craft would be able to launch a 3-person crew beyond LEO via use of a modified version of the Ariane 5 rocket and would be more spacious than the Russian Soyuz. A mock-up of the proposed craft was publicly displayed at the 2008 International Aerospace Exhibition in Berlin. If the project were to have been given ESA approval, development would have proceeded in two stages: