Italian government agency
The Italian Space Agency (; ASI) is a government agency established in 1988 to fund, regulate and coordinate space exploration activities in Italy. The agency cooperates with numerous national and international entities who are active in aerospace research and technology.
Nationally, ASI is responsible for both drafting the National Aerospace Plan and ensuring it is carried out. To do this the agency operates as the owner/coordinator of a number of Italian space research agencies and assets such as CIRA as well as organising the calls and opportunities process for Italian industrial contractors on spaceflight projects. Internationally, the ASI provides Italy's delegation to the Council of the European Space Agency and to its subordinate bodies as well as representing the country's interests in foreign collaborations.
ASI's main headquarters are located in Rome, Italy, and the agency also has direct control over two operational centres: the Centre for Space Geodesy (CGS) located in Matera in Italy, and its own spaceport, the Broglio Space Centre (formerly the ) on the coastal sublittoral of Kenya, currently used only as a communications ground station. One further balloon launch base located in Trapani was permanently closed in 2010. In 2020, ASI's annual revenues budget was approximately €2.0 billion and it directly employed around 200 workers.
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History.
Early Italian aerospace.
Activities started officially in 1988 but the agency drew extensively on the work of earlier national organisations as well as the consolidated experience of the many Italian scientists that had been investigating space and astronautics since the end of the 19th century. Some of the most outstanding names in Italian space exploration since its inception were the following:
San Marco programme.
Early Italian space efforts during the Space Race era were built around cooperation between the Italian Space Commission (a branch of the National Research Council) and NASA supported primarily by the Centro Ricerche Aerospaziali, the aerospace research group of the University of Rome La Sapienza. This plan, conceived by Luigi Broglio, led to the San Marco programme of Italian-built satellites beginning with the launch of Italy's first satellite, San Marco 1, from Wallops Island.
The San Marco project since 1967 was focused on the launching of scientific satellites by Scout rockets from a mobile rigid platform located close to the equator. This station, composed of 3 oil platforms and two logistical support boats, was installed off the Kenya coast, close to the town of Malindi.
Italy would later launch further satellites in the series (San Marco 2 in 1967, San Marco 3 in 1971, San Marco 4 in 1974 and San Marco D/L in 1988 ) using the American Scout rockets like the original, but from its own spaceport.
Co-operation and consolidation.
As one of the earliest countries to be engaged in space exploration, Italy became a founder and key partner in the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) and the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO), established on 29 March and 14 June 1962 respectively. Both of these would later merge to form the European Space Agency on 30 April 1975.
Further work would continue under the direction of the National Research Council including the launch of an indigenous telecoms/research satellite called SIRIO-1 in 1977. A planned follow-up mission SIRIO-2 was destroyed in the Ariane 1 L-05 launch failure. During the 1980s, it became clear of the need to rationalise and strengthen Italy's position in space research and so the decision was made to create the Italian Space Agency to further coordinate the nation's space activities.
Programmes.
Robotic exploration.
ASI's first large scientific satellite mission was BeppoSAX, developed in collaboration with the Netherlands and launched in 1996. Named after Giuseppe “Beppo” Occhialini, an important figure in Italian high-energy physics, the satellite was a mission to study the universe in the X-ray part of the spectrum.
Following on from this ASI developed another high-energy astronomical satellite, AGILE for gamma ray astronomy, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 2007. A particular innovation was the use of a single instrument to measure both Gamma rays and hard X-rays.
ASI also has collaborated on many major international space exploration missions including;
Italy's space industry has also been involved in many other scientific missions such as SOHO, Cluster II, ISO, XMM-Newton and Planck.
The technology experiments TSS-1 and TSS-1R were also conducted in partnership with NASA.
Launcher development.
Currently ASI is a partner in the Ariane 5 launcher programme and more recently is the major (65%) backer of the ESA Vega small launcher, capable of putting a payload of 1500 kg to low Earth orbit.
Earth observation.
ASI is a participant in many of ESA's programmes in the field of Earth Observation such as ERS-1, ERS-2, ENVISAT, the Meteosat series and the Galileo satellite navigation system. The agency has also collaborated with other European and international partners such as the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission with NASA.
In October 1992, NASA launched LAGEOS-2 (following LAGEOS-1 launched in 1976) in cooperation with ASI. A passive satellite, it is an aluminum plated brass sphere covered with retroreflectors to reflect laser ranging beams emitted from ground stations on Earth. The primary mission goals were to determine accurately Earth's Geoid and to measure Tectonic plate movement. In 2010 ASI's own satellite, LARES, will be launched using the Vega rocket. The mission is designed to carry out similar studies to that of LAGEOS 2 but with much greater precision.
The Italian Space Agency, under direction of both the Ministry of Research and the Ministry of Defence, developed the COSMO-SkyMed constellation of satellites for both military and civilian use in a broad range of areas.
The Italian Space Agency launched in 2019 the multimission program PLATiNO (mini Piattaforma spaziaLe ad Alta TecNOlogia, High-Technology Mini-Satellite Platform), to develop industrial capability in the small satellites sector. The first mission in 2023 will embark a SAR, the second one in 2024 a Thermal Infrared Imager.
Human spaceflight.
Through ASI, the Italian space industry is an active player in human spaceflight activities.
The three Space Shuttle Multi-Purpose Logistics Module cargo containers "Leonardo", "Raffaello" and "Donatello", were manufactured at the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center in Turin, Italy by Alcatel Alenia Space, now Thales Alenia Space. They provide a key function in storing equipment and parts for transfer to the International Space Station.
A number of ISS modules have also been made in Italy. As part of ESA's contribution to the costs of the International Space Station, Alcatel Alenia Space manufactured "Tranquility", "Harmony" as well as the "Cupola" observation deck for NASA.
ESA's "Columbus" module, Western Europe's primary scientific lab on board the ISS, was again built in Turin based on Italy's previous experience in space station module construction.
Italian astronauts.
As an ESA member heavily involved in human spaceflight, ASI sponsors a select few Italian citizens to train at ESA's European Astronaut Corps (EAC) to represent the country on missions. Italians to have flown in space are:
References.
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 English translation: "One-Year Exploration-Trip Earth-Mars-Venus-Earth, " Gaetano A. Crocco, paper presented at the Seventh Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, Rome, Italy, Rendiconti pp. 227-252.