About the author

Marco Trovatello

As Head of the Cross-Media Section of DLR's Corporate Communications Department, Marco Trovatello was responsible for Communication across all media distribution channels (Web and Multimedia, Blogs, Social Media, Printed and Tablet media), Evolution of Content Management Systems, Corporate Visual Identity, and DLR's digital media strategy until 30 April 2014. As of 1 May 2014, he serves as Cross-Media Coordinator and Strategy Advisor in the Corporate Communications Department of the European Space Agency ESA.


Posts from Marco Trovatello

Other | 10. September 2012

The DLR Magazine now also for your tablet

The DLR Magazine is the most important printed media in DLR’s communication portfolio. In spite of this, or rather, especially because of this, it is now available for tablets such as the iPad and devices running the Android operating system. read more

Space | 21. May 2012

Tweeting from space for the digital public

Three space agencies, DLR, ESA and NASA, as well as their astronauts tweet, blog and post messages on a wide array of social media channels; often, they or respectively their astronauts even do so from space. Why do they do this, and how does it work? Here is what astronauts and social media experts at DLR, ESA and NASA had to say on this subject at re:publica 2012, Germany’s largest and most prominent conference on the future of society and all things digital. read more

Space | 05. April 2012

DLR, NASA and ESA at re:publica Berlin

I have great pleasure in announcing that members of DLR, NASA and ESA will be participating in a session at re:publica Berlin from 2 to 4 May 2012. According to the organisers, re:publica is “Germany’s largest and most prominent conference on the future of society and all things digital.” read more

Other | 03. April 2012

Space Tweetup in numbers

Last week, on 28/29 March 2012, the fourth European SpaceTweetup took place in Toulouse, France. A good reason to blog about the reach and numbers of such a communication measure. Plenty has already been written about the first European Space Tweetup, organised by DLR and ESA, which took place in September 2011, so I will - with some delay - now just concentrate on the numbers here. For any readers who want to know more about the SpaceTweetup and find out what it was all about, I recommend this or that blog article. read more

Other | 16. September 2011

The SpaceTweeps SpaceTweetup banner

What you see here is SpaceTweetup partcipant Marco Frissen's son Raf with a self-made SpaceTweetup banner for our wonderful & very first european SpaceTweetup. So cute we simply had to blog here.







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Other | 15. September 2011

German Aerospace Day and SpaceTweetup in near real time

Here is a list of the social media channels for German Aerospace Day and the associated SpaceTweetup; nearly all the events can be followed in (almost) real time. read more

Other | 13. September 2011

Welcome!

On Sunday, 18 September 2011, DLR German Aerospace Center will, for the 11th time, host the German Aerospace Day event. In this blog, the DLR Online Communications team will keep you posted on the last news regarding German Aerospace Day and the first european SpaceTweetup - in german and english language. At the end of the day we will also post the winner of our Social Media contest here. More on that soon by my colleague Andrea Schaub.

Of course we'll also post news, pics and other stuff on Facebook, Twitter und Flickr. read more

Other | 15. August 2011

The DLR App - now also for iPad

The new version of DLR's iOS App provides a wealth of information right at your fingertips - now also supporting the features of the iPad. read more

Other | 12. August 2011

The first european SpaceTweetup

Today we sent off the last invitation letters for the first european SpaceTweetup, jointly organised by DLR and ESA. I cannot make clear enough how happy I am to organise and host this event together with our friends from ESA's communication department. But before I give you a little bit of background information on how the event came about, let me first answer the often heard question: read more

Space | 29. April 2011

STS-134: Launch Day!

Der Tag beginnt für uns um 8.00 Uhr Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) in Cocoa Beach, Florida, mit einer Pressekonferenz bzw. einem Media Briefing zum Thema "Nutzung der Internationalen Raumstation ISS: Deutschlands Pläne und Projekte", zu der DLR und ESA geladen haben und in deren Rahmen der deutsche AMS-02-Projektleiter Stefan Schael von der Rheinisch-Westfälischen Technischen Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen und DLR-Vorstandsvorsitzender Jan Wörner sich den Fragen der Journalisten stellen. Im Rahmen der Pressekonferenz fällt schon bald ein zentraler Satz von Stefan Schael: "Wenn AMS dort draußen keine Antimaterie findet, dann gibt es auch keine." Im Umkehrschluss bedeutet dies, dass Principal Investigator Samuel Ting, Stefan Schael und ihre vielen über den Erdball verteilten an AMS beteiligten Kollegen hoffen, mit dem heutigen Start des Alpha-Magnet-Spektrometers AMS die derzeit gültige Hypothese, dass nach dem Urknall ebensoviel Materie wie Antimaterie entstand, belegen zu können. read more

Space | 28. April 2011

STS-134 Launch -1: 1500 journalists and more than half a million visitors expected

The alarm clock goes off at 04:45 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). At 05:30, breakfast. At 06:00, the ESA-DLR media delegation, consisting of a dozen journalists and a number of 'Public Affairs Officers' (as NASA calls them) is on the move. At 08:40, after obtaining additional accreditation at two badging stations, we finally arrive at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) press site. read more

Space | 20. April 2011

STS-134: Ready to blog

Since yesterday's Flight Readiness Review (FRR) confirmed a "Go" for Endeavour's Launch on 29 April it's now certain that we (me, that is) will continue blogging here starting next Thursday, 28 April, where there will be first photo opportunities at Kennedy Space Center. Unfortunately my DLR colleague Thilo Kranz, fellow blogger and excellent shuttle photographer, will not be there this time. read more

Space | 04. March 2011

STS-134: Roll over and 'hoist and mate'

With this new set of images that Thilo recently sent, we start to tie in with Space Shuttle Mission STS-134 which will carry the European-built Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station. The mission won't launch before 19 April 2011, but we already have some great images. read more

Other | 25. February 2011

(Almost) One image per second

Last night, Thilo sent back pictures of Discovery's launch that he took himself, including some taken with a remote camera. The latter were taken with the help of a sound sensor that triggered the camera, located directly at the launch pad.

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Other | 21. February 2011

Resuming ...

NASA quotes "Launch week" and we're on it again. At this very moment, Thilo is on the airplane to Florida to flickr and phlog the launch of STS-133. Even if on this photo (taken in November 2010) it looks like I am travelling with him: I am not, but will blog from Cologne instead. read more

Other | 10. February 2011

DLR in your hands - the DLR App, now for iPhone

The first version of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) iPhone App is now available via the iTunes store. This free App gives users access to a wealth of information wherever they go. The DLR App is a dynamic online news aggregator that compiles all relevant information on DLR research areas of space, aviation, energy and transport - from breaking news to videos to imagery - and delivers it to your iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad). read more

Other | 05. November 2010

STS-133 Launch Postponed - Blog paused

As most of you certainly know by now, the launch of space shuttle Discovery has been postponed to no earlier than Tuesday, 30 November 2010. The launch window closes Sunday, 5 December. For our little PhotoBlog this means we’ll pause, most likely until the start of STS-134. Many thanks for reading us! read more

Space | 04. November 2010

Shuttle at night and camera in a bird box

Tonight (that means on the night of 3 November) the Space shuttle’s Rotating Service Structure has been rolled back and revealed Discovery in its entire beauty. The Flickr set shows the respecitve images plus some more, e.g. Thilo’s camera in a bird house, prepared for launch.


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Space | 03. November 2010

Hanging on and being rewarded at the NASA press site

Space journalists need to have stamina - in particular when reporting on a shuttle launch. Often, scrub follows scrub follows scrub - which is just normal with regard to the complex matter of space flight. On these images, you see the journalists waiting for a news conference following a meeting of the Shuttle Mission Management Team (MMT) – but the news conference will of course only start after the hours-long meeting has finished. read more

Space | 02. November 2010

L-2: Some images from KSC

Updated 2/11/2010, 11.00 EDT / 16.00 MEZ

Thilo Kranz and myself have been on two different tours today and had the possibility to shoot some behind the scenes footage. Thilo has been on a press tour. It took him to Launch Pad 39B, which in the meantime is being dismantled and rebuild for the requirements of the Constellation programme. I visited the Orbiter Processing Facility OPF-1, Launch Pad 39A with Space shuttle Discovery on it and the 160 metre tall Vehicle Assemby Building. read more

Space | 29. October 2010

Flickr Album for STS-133 set up

In my last blogpost I said 'Thilo Kranz and me will be will be 'blogging and flickering'. Hence I've just set up a dedicated Flickr set for our photos of the STS-133 launch. For the moment I've uploaded just a couple of placeholder images, borrowed from our colleagues at NASA. read more

Other | 28. October 2010

Welcome to the ShuttleLaunchBlog

Space shuttle mission STS-133 is currently scheduled for launch on Monday, 1 November 2010. STS-133 is currently the penultimate mission of NASA's legendary Space shuttle programme. Via the 'ShuttleLaunchBlog' it is our goal to document these last Space shuttle launches by means of photographs and short captions: The end of an era in - hopefully - fascinating images - in our first photoblog. read more

Other | 17. August 2010

A few words about social media and DLR's online communications

Ever more frequently, we in the DLR Communication Department have to answer the question how and why we use social networks and social media in our work. In this blogpost I'd like to go into our social media strategy - and to explain our approach to online communications in general. read more

Other | 17. August 2010

DLR Blogs: improved readability

In the recent past, many of our readers pointed out a poor readability of DLR Blogs. We have optimised this last night. White font and dark blue links on a "brushed metal" background have now been replaced with a typical black font on a lighter coloured background. read more

Other | 06. August 2010

NewsBlog renamed to KommBlog

Just a quick note: I've just renamed this blog (formerly "NewsBlog") to CommunicationBlog or "CommBlog". The reason behind is that - in relation to the news-oriented homepage of the DLR Web Portal - "NewsBlog" sounded misleading. read more

Space | 25. May 2010

ISS Sun transit

DLR staff member Thilo Kranz took this great image in his leisure time last Sunday. It shows a transit of the Sun by the International Space Station ISS with Space Shuttle Atlantis docked. read more

Space | 22. January 2010

News about SOFIA

The SOFIA ‘flying observatory’, a collaboration between NASA and DLR, is making great progress. After two test flights in December 2009, a third successful flight was made on 15 January 2010. A brief news roundup. read more

Other | 12. January 2010

MonTalk am 11.01.2010 im WDR2-Radio mit Jan Wörner

Am Montag, 11.01.2010, war Prof. Johann-Dietrich Wörner in der Sendung MonTalk auf WDR 2 zu Gast. Themen waren unter anderem der Mond und robotische Exploration. Die Sendung steht als Podcast zur Verfügung.
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Other | 12. January 2010

Welcome to the DLR Blogs

Today, we have taken our new DLR Blogs platform live; we wish to offer you a warm welcome. We are starting with three blogs. Firstly, there is a blog by Jan Wörner, chairman of the DLR Executive board, who offers insights into his work. Secondly, we have started our NewsBlog, in which we intend to publish the short stories, pictures, videos or other items of interest that do not find a place on the homepage of our web portal – www.dlr.de/en. Last but not least, there's the EnergyBlog. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung; BMBF) has nominated 'The Future of Energy' as the topic for the german Science Year 2010. This is more than sufficient reason for us to address the subject with a dedicated blog, in which we will also answer an 'Energy Question of the Week'. read more