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Iodine thruster could slow space junk accumulation

26 Jan 2021

For the first time ever, a telecommunications satellite has used an iodine propellant to change its orbit around Earth.

The small but potentially disruptive innovation could help to clear the skies of space junk, by enabling tiny satellites to self-destruct cheaply and easily at the end of their missions, by steering themselves into the atmosphere where they would burn up.

Astronauts to boost European connectivity

19 Jan 2021

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are planning a spacewalk to install a high-speed satellite link that will improve their connections with Europe.

The system will enable astronauts to connect at home broadband internet speeds – delivering a whole family’s worth of video streaming for communications and a data pipeline connecting the scientific experiments aboard the Station to researchers in Europe.

Opportunity: Smart and Uncrewed Shipping

28 Apr 2021

In the upcoming Announcement of Opportunity economic operators are invited to propose a Demonstration Project addressing the theme of:


Space for Smart and Uncrewed Shipping: downstream services enabled by 5G and advanced positioning, navigation and timing (PNT)

7 years of successful in-orbit operations for ESA Telecoms’ Hosted Payloads on-board Alphasat

20 Jan 2021

Providing exceptional value for in-orbit technology demonstration at a minimal expenditures, ESA’s Hosted Payloads will have clocked 7 years of continuous operations in-orbit at the end of 2020. At the forefront of laser and Q/V band communications, the Hosted Payloads demonstrate ESA’s Partnership Projects ability to develop, implement and validate innovative end-to-end systems.

ESA’s Pacis 3 project moves forward with new GaN Solid State Power Amplifier

2 Dec 2020

The Preliminary Design Review for the Dual Solid State Power Amplifier (DSSPA) developed by SENER (Spain) in the frame of ESA’s Pacis 3 Partnership Project has been completed successfully. The very first test results obtained on the 10W X-band DSSPA prototype have been presented and exhibit impressive performances.

FATMAP – new features for leading outdoor platform

9 Dec 2020

Getting out in the fresh air is more ‘in’ than ever this year, and with FATMAP’s adventure platform, activities in the Great Outdoors have never been easier to plan. With the support of ESA Space Solutions, FATMAP have now added some crucial ‘live data’ enhanced features, which take the application to new heights. 

AlbaPod: the most advanced space-proven PocketQube deployer

30 Nov 2020

The ‘maker’ movement in electronics and the meteoric rise of smartphones have led to a surge in small satellites - such as nano- and picosatellites (picosats are the tiniest of smallsats). But something has to propel these pocket-size payloads into space. The AlbaPod is the first flight-proven six unit (6p) ‘PocketQube’ or picosat satellite deployer, whose successful demonstration was performed under the ARTES Competitiveness & Growth programme.  

New partnership to inspire competitive innovation

27 Nov 2020

A fully reconfigurable, software-defined, standardised satellite for the commercial telecommunications market is under development, with contributions from a new Partnership Project between satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space and ESA.