City firm Bird & Bird has signed a co-operation agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA) to give legal advice on commercial exploitation of the international space station being built jointly with the US, Russia, Canada, and Japan.

The firm has become the only law firm among the private businesses who have joined the project as co-operating industry partners since it was opened up beyond government bodies two years ago.


The international space station will establish a state-of-the-art laboratory complex in orbit, more than four times the size and with almost 60 times the electrical power for experiments of Russia's ageing Mir space station.


Mir space station: City firm Bird & Buird advises on successor

Research in the station's six laboratories will cover medicine, materials and fundamental science, with high technology companies in all these fields effectively hiring the space station to develop their products.

Armand Killan, lead partner of Bird & Bird's team on the project, said the relationship was not exclusive because there are governmental agencies involved in ESA. However, he added that the partnership agreement would make it difficult for the commercial partners to choose other law firms to represent them in their negotiations with non-partner companies.


As well as advising on contracts, Bird & Bird will also provide the project's partners with regular workshops on legal issues.


Mr Killan added: 'Being part of a project of such scale brings us close to the most complicated and interesting issues of the day.'


The other commercial partners include Dutch Space, Bradford, EADS Space, BEOS, Contraves Alenia, Altac and Kayser Threde.