Италия Ғарыш Агенттігі: Тарихы мен қазіргі қызметі

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. 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 San Marco Equatorial Range) 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. Luigi Crocco (1909 1986), son of Gaetano Arturo, an internationally renowned scientist in aerodynamics theory and jet propulsion. Under his guide Italy built and operated a satellite in orbit around the Earth and became the first country to deploy an equatorial launching pad, the San Marco, and to experiment successful launching from it. Carlo Buongiorno, Broglio's pupil and the first director general of ASI.

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.

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. A planned follow up mission SIRIO 2 was destroyed in the Ariane 1 L 05 launch failure. 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.

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.

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:

Franco Malerba, Italy's first astronaut and the only one not to fly as a member of the EAC. He flew on STS 46 (31 July to 7 August 1992) as payload specialist on the first Tethered Satellite System mission. Umberto Guidoni, flew on STS 75 (22 February to 9 March 1996) as payload specialist on the second Tethered Satellite System mission TSS 1R. He became the first Italian and European on the International Space Station during STS 100 (19 April to 1 May 2001). Maurizio Cheli, flew with Umberto Guidoni as a mission specialist on STS 75. Roberto Vittori, has flown on multiple missions to the ISS: Soyuz TM 33, Soyuz TM 34, Soyuz TMA 5, Soyuz TMA 6 and STS 134. Paolo A. Nespoli, flew on STS 120 (23 October to 7 November 2007),; he then returned two more times on the ISS: one for the long duration MagISStra mission (Expedition 26/27, from 15 December 2010, to 23 May 2011) aboard the Soyuz TMA 20 and the other for the Vita mission (Expedition 52/53)
Luca Parmitano, selected in February 2009, flew aboard Soyuz TMA 09M on 28 May 2013, arriving at the International Space Station the following day. He returned to Earth on 11 November 2013. He returned to the ISS on board the Soyuz MS 13 mission from 20 July 2019 to 6 February 2020. During this time he served as Flight Engineer on Expedition 60 and Commander on Expedition 61. Samantha Cristoforetti, also selected in 2009, flew to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA 15M on 23 November 2014. Her original return date was delayed by one month after the failure of two Russian rockets extended her stay in space past the European astronaut and female astronaut endurance records. Her return to Earth, on 11 June 2015, concluded her 199d 16h 42m in space. She was on the ISS with Expedition 67 from 27 April 2022 as a part of SpaceX Crew 4 mission and took command of ISS Expedition 68 from 28 September 2022 to 14 October 2022, when she returned to Earth aboard Crew Dragon Endurance.