Destination Moon? Belgium joins the space race

A giant poster of Tintin is seen inside the Centre Pompidou modern art museum in Paris December 19, 2006. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo

Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin helped popularize the 1950s Space Race with his iconic cartoon rocket; seven decades on from the boy reporter's "Destination Moon", his country is finally getting its own version of NASA.

The Interfederal Space Agency of Belgium (ISAB) will be set up next year, science minister Elke Sleurs said, arguing that it would help a local industry hang on to what is now a 5-percent share of the EU's 7 billion-euro a year space industry.