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The Italian Space Agency (Italian: Agenzia Spaziale Italiana; ASI) was founded in 1988 to promote, coordinate, and conduct space activities in Italy. Operating under the Ministry of the Universities and Scientific and Technological Research, the Agency cooperates with numerous international and Italian entities, who are active in space technology, and with the Italian President of the Council of Ministers. Internationally, the ASI provides Italy's delegation to the Council of the European Space Agency and to its subordinate bodies. ASI's main headquarters are located in Rome, Italy. The agency also has two operational centers, located in Matera and Trapani (both in Italy), and a spaceport, the San Marco platform, on the coastal sublittoral of Kenya. The ASI's annual budget is $978 million.
Political space activities in Italy before ASI
Activities started officially on 1988 But the Agency drew extensively on the consolidated experience of the many Italian scientists that had been investigating space and astronautics since the end of the 19th century. The most outstanding names in the Italian space science since its inception are the following: Giulio Costanzi, his 1914 writing of space navigation and nuclear propulsion are considered the first Italian contribution to astronautics. Luigi Gussalli, astronautics pioneer since the 20's, corresponded with international space scientists such as Oberth and Goddard. He invented a double-reaction jet engine, developed multi-stage rockets, suggested a Moon mission and solar radiation powered spaceships. Gaetano Arturo Crocco, aeronautics and astronautics pioneer, invented the first all-Italian liquid-fuelled combustion chamber and developed the gravitational slingshot theory to increase spaceship speed without fuel consumption.[3], son to Gaetano Arturo, an internationally renown scientist in aerodynamics theory and jet propulsion. Aurelio Robotti, expert on rocket liquid fuels, father of the first Italian liquid-fuelled rocket, AR3. Luigi Broglio, the unanimously recognized father of Italian astronautics. Under his guide Italy became the third country in the world to put a satellite into orbit around the Earth and the first country to deploy an equatorial launching pad and to experiment successful launching from it. Carlo Bongiorno, Broglio's pupil and the first Director of the Italian Space Agency (ASI)
Products
- Various experiment (TSS-1, LAGEOS II, SAR X, TSS-1R, UV-STAR, SRTM...) in collaboration with NASA.
- BeppoSAX, a satellite for X-ray astronomy.
- Cassini-Huygens in collaboration with NASA and European Space Agency.
- Sicral 1/1B/2, military communication satellites.
- Mars Express in collaboration with ESA.
- Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission in collaboration with NASA.
- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in collaboration with NASA
- AGILE, a satellite for X-ray and Gamma ray astronomy.
- COSMO-SkyMed, a satellite constellation for dual purpose SAR Earth observation.
- Vega, a planned expendable launch system developed jointly by the ASI and the ESA.
- Harmony, Columbus, Tranquility, the Cupola and all MPLMs have been built for NASA in Turin, Italy by the company that is now Thales Alenia Space.
Plus some direct involving in ESA projects like Galileo positioning system, ERS-1/2, Envisat, Meteosat, EOPP, SOHO, Cluster II, ISO, XMM-Newton, INTEGRAL, Rosetta, Planck and Mars Express.
See also
Notes
Bibliography
- Filippo Graziani, La Scuola di Scuola Ingegneria Aerospaziale nell'ottantesimo anniversario della sua fondazione
- Gaetano Arturo Crocco, Giro esplorativo di un anno Terra-Marte-Venere-Terra, Rendiconti del VII Congresso Internazionale Astronauticao, Roma, settembre 1956, pagg. 201-225;
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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.
- Giorgio Di Bernardo, Nella nebbia in attesa del Sole, Di Renzo Editore
- AA.VV:, Le attivití spaziali italiane dal dopoguerra all'istituzione dell'Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Agenzia Spaziale Europea
- Aurelio Robotti, 1941-1961, venti anni di storia missilistica in Italia, "Missili" Edizioni Italiane, 1962
- Giovanni Caprara, L'Italia nello spazio, Valerio Levi Editore, 1992
External links
Italy
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