Space Research: NSA: “Space hotel” successfully added to ISS

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) has been successfully attached onto the International Space Station (ISS).

A NASA ground-control team has used a robot arm to unpack an expandable module and attach it to the International Space Station, setting the stage to test a new habitat for astronauts, researchers and even tourists.

The 3,100-pound (1,400 kg) module, manufactured and owned by Bigelow Aerospace, was launched aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule that reached the station last week.

Read more: “Space hotel” successfully added to ISS | euronews, no comment

European Space Agency: Space inventions free for ESA and Canadian Member Corporations

Space companies and organizations from ESA Member States and Canada are invited to submit their interest in using ESA’s inventions. 

As a research organisation, ESA encourages, protects and licenses innovations or inventions resulting from its own activities in order to fulfil its mission of cooperation among Member States in space research and technologies and their applications, and supports the worldwide competitiveness of European industry. 

ESA patents up to 20 inventions a year and has a portfolio of about 450 patent applications and patents, which cover subjects such as radio-frequency payloads and systems, structures and pyrotechnics, electromagnetic technologies and techniques, material and processes, robotics, optics, electrical power and propulsion. 

ESA makes its inventions available free of charge via its Technology Transfer Programme Office on a non-exclusive basis to space industry within its 20 Member States. For use by companies outside of ESA’s 

Member States or for non-space applications, a different licensing model is in place, allowing the Agency to request royalties. 

Licensing templates can be downloaded via the link below as well as more information about ESA’s Intellectual Property policy. 

The goal of this call for interest is to make ESA’s portfolio and licensing conditions more openly visible to European space industry and to encourage its use and licensing. The deadline for the call is 5 March 2014. Further information click here 

Read more: Space inventions for free / Highlights / TTP2 / Technology / Our Activities / ESA

French Guiana: First Vega rocket launch a success for European Space Agency

A brand-newEuropean rocket soared into space early Monday (Feb. 13) in a launch debut that carried nine small satellites and the hopes of the European Space Agency all the way into orbit.

The space agency's new Vega rocket, which is designed to launch small satellites, blasted off from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, on the northern Atlantic coast of South America and reached orbit minutes later. Liftoff occurred at 5 a.m. ET (1000 GMT).

For more: First Vega rocket launch a success for European Space Agency

Beijing seven minutes from destruction when a 2.5 ton satellite crashed to Earth at 300mph - by Allan Hall and Katie Silver

Seven minutes saved huge areas of Beijing from destruction last year when a 2.5 ton satellite hurtled towards earth, it has been revealed.

The Chinese capital was directly in the flight path of Germany's research satellite Rosat when it plunged into the Bay of Bengal last October, two decades after it's launch.

The consequences of chunks of the 2.5 ton satellite falling into the city would have been catastrophic; huge craters, shattered fuel lines, explosions, wrecked buildings and untold human casualties in a metropolis of 20 million people.

For more: Beijing seven minutes from destruction¿ when a 2.5 ton satellite crashed to Earth at 300mph | Mail Online

ESA - Galileo in tune: first navigation signal transmitted to Earth

Europe’s Galileo system has passed its latest milestone, transmitting its very first test navigation signal back to Earth.

The first two Galileo satellites, launched on 21 October, are in the midst of their In-Orbit Test campaign. A detailed check-up is being carried out by ESA's Redu ground station in Belgium to ensure their payloads are performing as specified, with no degradation from the launch. The different Galileo signals are being activated and tested one by one. Soon after the payload power amplifiers were switched on and ‘outgassed’– warmed up to release vapours that might otherwise interfere with operations – the first test signal was transmitted in the early morning of Saturday 10 December by the first Galileo satellite. This signal was then captured at Redu.

For more: ESA Portal - Galileo in tune: first navigation signal transmitted to Earth

Russia teams up with European Space Agency in bid to launch first manned mission to Mars

Just three weeks after Nasa's 30-year shuttle programme finally came to an end, it looks like the space race might already be back on.

Russia is teaming up with the European Space Agency (ESA) to launch the first manned mission to Mars.

Speaking at an air show at Zhukovsky, near Moscow, ESA chief Jean-Jacques Dordain said his agency and Roskosmos will 'carry out the first flight to Mars together.

For more: Russia teams up with European Space Agency in bid to launch first manned mission to Mars | Mail Online