"Chi fa da sé fa per tre." (He who does it himself does the work of three.)
— Italian proverb
In Part 1 of this deep dive, we traced the arc of Italy's space story from Luigi Broglio's audacious San Marco satellite in 1964 through the founding of the Italian Space Agency, the development of the Vega rocket family, the extraordinary contribution of Italian-built modules to the International Space Station, and the astronauts who carried the tricolore into orbit. 🇮🇹
That was the story of how Italy got to space. This is the story of how Italy stayed there — and how it is building the infrastructure that will define Europe's presence in orbit for decades to come.
Behind every pressurized module, every radar satellite image, every secure military communication relayed from orbit, there are factories, ground stations, and laboratories staffed by Italian engineers whose work most people never see. The companies profiled in this article — Thales Alenia Space, Telespazio, Leonardo — are not household names. But they are the backbone of European spaceflight, and increasingly, of the global space economy.
Let us begin in Turin, where the future is being welded together one aluminum panel at a time.
Thales Alenia Space: Europe's Spacecraft Factory
The Joint Venture
Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture between the French technology group Thales (67%) and the Italian aerospace and defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%). It is, by virtually any measure, the most important spacecraft manufacturer in Europe and one of the most prolific in the world.
The company posted consolidated revenues of approximately EUR 2.23 billion in 2024 and employs more than 8,100 people across 15 sites in seven countries. Its headquarters are split between Cannes, France and Turin, Italy — a dual-city arrangement that reflects the Franco-Italian partnership at its core. In Italy alone, Thales Alenia Space operates across four sites in Rome, Turin, L'Aquila, and Milan, with approximately 2,500 Italian employees.
But raw numbers only begin to tell the story. What makes Thales Alenia Space exceptional is the sheer breadth of what it builds: navigation satellites, Earth observation platforms, telecommunications spacecraft, scientific probes, space station modules, and lunar habitation structures. If it flies in orbit and carries a European flag, there is a very high probability that Thales Alenia Space had a hand in building it.
Turin: The Satellite Manufacturing Capital
The Turin facility is the crown jewel. It is here that Italian engineers and technicians built more than 50 percent of the ISS's pressurized habitable volume — the Nodes, the Cupola, the Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules, the pressure shells of Columbus, and the cargo modules for Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft. The institutional knowledge accumulated through two decades of building human-rated pressurized structures is not something that can be replicated easily. It lives in the hands of the technicians who perform the welds, in the inspection protocols refined through hundreds of quality cycles, in the manufacturing processes that have been validated by real hardware surviving real spaceflight.
This expertise now positions Turin as the default European location for building the next generation of orbital habitats.
Galileo Second Generation
Europe's independence in satellite navigation depends on the Galileo constellation, and Thales Alenia Space is central to its next evolution.
In March 2021, Thales Alenia Space signed a EUR 772 million contract with the European Space Agency to build 6 of the 12 satellites for the Galileo Second Generation (G2G) constellation. The company leads a multinational industrial team spanning 14 European countries. In July 2023, Thales Alenia Space added contracts worth more than EUR 300 million for the Galileo Second Generation Ground Mission Segment and system engineering activities — giving the company responsibility for both the satellites in orbit and the ground infrastructure that controls them.
The G2G satellites represent a significant technological leap over the first generation, incorporating enhanced navigation signals, improved atomic clocks, digital payloads allowing in-orbit reconfiguration, and strengthened cybersecurity. Thales Alenia Space was also awarded dedicated contracts for the cybersecurity architecture of the entire G2G system — recognition of the growing strategic importance of protecting navigation infrastructure from interference and spoofing.
Copernicus: The Eyes of Europe
If Galileo gives Europe its position, Copernicus gives Europe its vision. The Copernicus Earth observation program is the most ambitious environmental monitoring system ever built, and Thales Alenia Space is its industrial cornerstone.
Thales Alenia Space serves as prime contractor for the Sentinel-1 radar imaging satellites and the Sentinel-3 ocean and land monitoring satellites — four spacecraft each, for a total of eight satellites across these two families alone. The company also supplied the image ground segment for Sentinel-2, helped build the imaging spectrometer on Sentinel-5P, and contributed the Poseidon-4 radar altimeter on Sentinel-6 (the sea-level monitoring mission).
Beyond the current constellation, Thales Alenia Space has been awarded contracts to build the next-generation Copernicus ROSE-L satellite (an L-band radar mission) and the CHIME (Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission) satellites. When you add these to the existing Sentinel fleet, the picture becomes clear: Thales Alenia Space is the single most important industrial partner in giving Europe its ability to observe and monitor the planet from space.
FLEX: Measuring Photosynthesis from Orbit
One of the most scientifically elegant missions in the current ESA pipeline is FLEX (Fluorescence Explorer), ESA's eighth Earth Explorer mission. FLEX will detect the faint fluorescent glow emitted by plants during photosynthesis — measuring, in effect, the metabolic activity of the Earth's vegetation from 800 kilometers above.
Thales Alenia Space is the prime contractor for the FLEX satellite, with the critical FLORIS (Fluorescence Imaging Spectrometer) instrument provided by Leonardo. FLEX will orbit in tandem with a Sentinel-3 satellite — also built by Thales Alenia Space — to combine fluorescence measurements with Sentinel-3's optical and thermal sensors. The platform assembly, integration, and test campaign was underway through 2025 at Thales Alenia Space facilities.
The Lunar Gateway: Building Humanity's Outpost at the Moon
The Lunar Gateway is the orbital station that will serve as a staging post for NASA's Artemis program, enabling sustained human presence around the Moon. It is an international collaboration between NASA, ESA, JAXA, and CSA — and Italian industry is at its heart.
In October 2020, Thales Alenia Space was selected by ESA as prime contractor for the I-HAB (International Habitation Module). I-HAB will serve as the primary crew living quarters aboard the Gateway, providing a habitable volume of approximately 10 cubic meters with a maximum launch mass of 10,000 kilograms. The module will feature four docking ports — two axial ports for connection to other Gateway elements and two radial ports for cargo vehicles and lunar landers. Thales Alenia Space is responsible for program management, design, fabrication of the primary structure, mechanical and thermal systems, and final integration and testing.
Separately, Thales Alenia Space in France is prime contractor for the ESPRIT module (European System Providing Refuelling, Infrastructure and Telecommunications). ESPRIT consists of two main elements: Lunar Link, which will ensure communications between the Gateway and the Moon's surface, and Lunar View, which will supply the station with xenon and chemical propellants to extend its operational lifetime. A EUR 164 million contract amendment was signed to extend and optimize the ESPRIT module design.
The symbolism is impossible to miss. The same Turin facility that built the modules where astronauts live on the ISS today is now building the modules where astronauts will live in lunar orbit tomorrow.
Axiom Station: The Commercial Successor to the ISS
When the ISS eventually reaches end of life, commercial space stations will take its place. The most advanced of these programs is Axiom Space, headquartered in Houston — and Axiom chose Thales Alenia Space to build its first modules.
Under a EUR 110 million contract announced in 2020, Thales Alenia Space is designing, developing, assembling, and testing the primary structure and micrometeoroid debris protection system for Axiom's first two pressurized modules. Each module will accommodate up to four people. The pressure vessel for the first module (AxH1) was expected to be delivered to Axiom's Houston facility in 2025, where Axiom will complete final outfitting, systems integration, and flight certification. The first module is currently targeted for launch in late 2026.
The Axiom modules will initially dock to the ISS, forming a commercial segment of the station, before eventually detaching to become a free-flying commercial space station. For Thales Alenia Space, this represents a seamless transition: from building government-owned ISS modules in the 2000s to building commercially-owned station modules in the 2020s, using the same proven manufacturing expertise developed over two decades.
Telespazio: Italy's Eyes and Ears in Space
The Joint Venture
If Thales Alenia Space builds the hardware that goes to space, Telespazio operates what happens after it gets there. Telespazio is a joint venture between Leonardo (67%) and Thales (33%), making it the mirror image of Thales Alenia Space in ownership terms. Together, the two companies form the Space Alliance — a strategic partnership that gives Leonardo and Thales end-to-end capability from manufacturing satellites to operating them in orbit and delivering services to users on the ground.
Headquartered in Rome, Telespazio employs approximately 3,500 people through its subsidiaries and joint ventures worldwide, generating annual revenues of approximately EUR 580 million. The company's portfolio spans satellite operations, Earth observation services, satellite navigation, integrated communications, and the management of space programs from launch through in-orbit operations.
The Fucino Space Centre
Telespazio's most remarkable asset is the "Piero Fanti" Space Centre in Fucino, located in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. It is not an exaggeration to call Fucino one of the most important ground facilities in the history of space communications.
The story begins on March 8, 1962, when construction started in the municipality of Ortucchio, in the basin of the former Lake Fucino — a flat plain that had been drained in the 19th century. By 1963, a 9-meter antenna at the site was conducting transmission experiments with the American Telstar satellite. In August 1967, the first large 27-meter satellite dish entered service. And on July 20, 1969, it was Fucino that received and retransmitted to Italian television audiences the live images of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.
Today, the Fucino Space Centre sprawls across 370,000 square meters and hosts more than 170 antennas, the largest measuring 32 meters in diameter. It is recognized as the largest commercial teleport in the world for civilian use — a distinction confirmed by the World Teleport Association, which has repeatedly rated it among the global elite.
The operational scope of Fucino is extraordinary:
- Galileo navigation system: Fucino hosts one of the two control centers that manage Europe's Galileo satellite navigation constellation, providing real-time orbital management and signal monitoring
- COSMO-SkyMed: The control center for Italy's radar Earth observation constellation is located at Fucino, managing mission planning and satellite operations
- EGNOS: The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, which augments GPS and Galileo signals for aviation safety, relies on Fucino infrastructure
- Copernicus data reception: Fucino serves as a receiving station for data from ESA's Copernicus Sentinel satellites
- Commercial telecommunications: Dozens of geostationary communication satellites are monitored and controlled from Fucino on behalf of international operators, including Intelsat, which expanded its European capacity through the facility
- Artemis program support: Fucino has been configured to contribute to the ground segment for NASA's Artemis lunar missions
The sheer density of antennas at Fucino — 170 dishes arrayed across a drained lakebed in the mountains of central Italy — creates one of the most visually striking space facilities on Earth. It is the nerve center through which a significant fraction of Europe's space data flows.
Leonardo S.p.A.: The Aerospace Giant's Space Division
Company Overview
Leonardo S.p.A. is Italy's largest aerospace and defense company, a sprawling conglomerate with roots stretching back to the postwar Italian industrial base. With group-wide revenues of EUR 17.8 billion in 2024 (a 16.2% increase year-on-year) and operations spanning helicopters, aircraft, electronics, cybersecurity, and space, Leonardo is one of Europe's defense-industrial pillars.
Leonardo's Space Division generated revenues of approximately EUR 906 million in 2024 — a roughly 30 percent increase that reflects growing demand for space capabilities across institutional and commercial markets. But Leonardo's space significance extends far beyond its division revenue. Through its 33 percent ownership of Thales Alenia Space and its 67 percent ownership of Telespazio, Leonardo effectively controls or co-controls a combined space enterprise with revenues exceeding EUR 3.7 billion and more than 14,000 employees. No other single company has a comparable stake in European space.
Electro-Optical Instruments
Leonardo's Space Division specializes in the precision instruments that give satellites their ability to see, navigate, and measure. The flagship products include:
Star trackers: Leonardo's A-STR and AA-STR autonomous star trackers are medium field-of-view instruments that determine a spacecraft's orientation by imaging the star field and matching observed patterns against onboard star catalogs. The latest iteration, the AA-STR MKII, integrates an optical head and processing unit in a single enclosure, with a 10-degree field of view, a 50.7mm focal length, and a 1024x1024-pixel detector. Leonardo star trackers have flown on numerous ESA missions, including BepiColombo (the Mercury mission), ensuring precise attitude determination in deep space.
Beyond heritage models, Leonardo has developed the SPACESTAR — a novel star tracker architecture originally designed for high-volume constellation programs. By integrating the star tracker with attitude control system computers, SPACESTAR achieves significant reductions in size, weight, power, and cost — critical parameters for the commercial mega-constellation era.
Hyperspectral and electro-optical payloads: Leonardo builds the imaging sensors that turn satellites into scientific instruments. The company produced the FLORIS hyperspectral payload for the FLEX mission and various electro-optical payloads for Earth observation satellites in the Copernicus and national programs.
The ExoMars Drill
One of Leonardo's most technically demanding space projects is the drill system for the ESA Rosalind Franklin rover, part of the ExoMars program. The drill is designed to penetrate up to two meters below the Martian surface — deeper than any previous Mars mission has reached — to retrieve subsurface samples where organic molecules may have been shielded from the harsh radiation environment on Mars's surface.
Embedded within the drill is the Ma_MISS (Mars Multispectral Imager for Subsurface Studies), a miniature infrared spectrometer positioned near the drill tip that will image the walls of the borehole during drilling, providing mineralogical analysis of the subsurface stratigraphy in real time. This instrument-within-a-drill concept allows scientists to reconstruct the geological history of the drilling site layer by layer, providing context for the samples collected.
The Rosalind Franklin rover has experienced a protracted development history, including the severing of the Russian partnership in 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine. ESA subsequently restructured the mission, and the rover remains on track for a future Mars launch, with the Italian-built drill system at its scientific core.
Robotic Arms and Mechanisms
Leonardo's space portfolio also includes robotic systems and mechanisms for orbital and planetary applications. The company's expertise in precision mechanical systems — servo-actuators, deployment mechanisms, and articulated structures — feeds into both satellite platforms and exploration hardware. These components are less visible than flagship instruments but are essential to the functioning of complex spacecraft.
COSMO-SkyMed: Italy's Radar Eyes
The Constellation
COSMO-SkyMed (Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation) is Italy's crown jewel in Earth observation — a constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites that can image the Earth's surface day and night, in all weather conditions, penetrating cloud cover that renders optical satellites blind.
The program is dual-use by design: funded jointly by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Italian Ministry of Defence, COSMO-SkyMed serves both civilian applications (environmental monitoring, disaster response, urban planning, agricultural assessment) and military intelligence (surveillance, reconnaissance, change detection, maritime monitoring).
First Generation
The first-generation constellation comprised four identical satellites, launched between 2007 and 2010, each carrying an X-band SAR instrument capable of producing imagery at resolutions as fine as one meter. The four satellites operated in a coordinated formation, enabling rapid revisit times and the ability to image any point on Earth within hours of a request — a capability of immense value for both disaster response and military surveillance.
Thales Alenia Space served as prime contractor for the satellite buses, while Telespazio managed the ground segment, including the control center at Fucino.
Second Generation
The COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation (CSG) satellites represent a significant technological upgrade, with improved SAR resolution, greater data throughput, and enhanced operational flexibility.
The deployment timeline:
- CSG-1: Launched December 18, 2019 aboard a Soyuz from the Guiana Space Centre
- CSG-2: Launched January 31, 2022 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral
- CSG-3: Launched January 3, 2026 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base
- CSG-4: Currently in production, expected to complete the constellation
In 2023, Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio signed a contract for two additional CSG satellites (CSG-3 and CSG-4), ensuring the constellation's continuity well into the 2030s.
The CSG system's SAR capabilities make Italy one of the world leaders in radar Earth observation — a distinction shared with only a handful of nations, including Germany (with its SAR-Lupe/SARah systems) and, at a different scale, the United States. Italy's investment in radar, rather than purely optical, observation was strategically astute: SAR imagery is weather-independent and works equally well at night, making it indispensable for military applications and critical for monitoring the Mediterranean basin — an area frequently obscured by cloud cover.
Military Space: Italy as NATO's Southern Flank
Strategic Context
Italy's military space capabilities have evolved from a modest adjunct to its defense posture into a recognized pillar of national security and NATO interoperability. The country's 2025-2027 Defence White Paper explicitly lists space programs — particularly satellite surveillance and positioning — as areas where Italy seeks to consolidate a meaningful degree of strategic autonomy.
Italy does not maintain a separate space force or space command; military space activities are managed at the joint level through the Ministry of Defence, working in close coordination with ASI. This pragmatic approach reflects Italy's emphasis on dual-use capabilities — COSMO-SkyMed being the prime example — where a single satellite system serves both civilian and military users, maximizing the return on investment.
SICRAL: Secure Military Communications
The SICRAL (Sistema Italiano per Comunicazioni Riservate ed Allarmi — Italian System for Secure Communications and Alerts) program provides Italy's armed forces with dedicated, secure satellite communications from geostationary orbit.
The program has evolved through three generations:
- SICRAL 1 (launched 2001): Italy's first dedicated military communications satellite, now decommissioned
- SICRAL 1B (launched 2009): Built by Thales Alenia Space, carrying EHF/Ka-band, three UHF-band, and five SHF-band transponders. Still operational and providing tactical communications support
- SICRAL 2 (launched April 2015): A Franco-Italian cooperation, with Italy funding 62 percent and France (through the Direction Generale de l'Armement) funding 38 percent. Positioned in geostationary orbit at 37 degrees east, SICRAL 2 provides strategic and tactical communications for both Italian and French military forces. This bilateral arrangement is a model for European defense cooperation — two NATO allies sharing a communications satellite to reduce costs while increasing capability
The next generation, SICRAL 3, is currently under development by Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio. SICRAL 3 will comprise two geostationary satellites (SICRAL 3A and SICRAL 3B), ensuring continuity of SHF and UHF communications while adding a Ka-band payload and expanding services to include security, public rescue, and civil protection. The program reached its critical design review in 2024, marking a major milestone toward production.
The SICRAL system enables interoperability between the communication networks of Italy's defense forces, law enforcement agencies, civil emergency services, and managers of strategic infrastructure — reflecting the modern understanding that space communications are as critical for homeland security as they are for expeditionary operations.
NATO Contributions
Italy's space assets contribute to several NATO cooperative programs:
- APSS (Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space): Italy is among 17 NATO allies contributing the equivalent of more than USD 1 billion to leverage commercial and national space assets for persistent surveillance
- STARLIFT: Launched in October 2024, this project includes 14 NATO allies developing a more resilient and cost-effective network of launch capabilities
- NORTHLINK: A project exploring secure Arctic satellite communications capability, currently including 13 NATO allies
Italy's geographic position on NATO's southern flank — facing the Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Middle East — makes its radar surveillance and secure communications capabilities particularly valuable to the alliance. COSMO-SkyMed's ability to image these regions in all weather conditions, combined with SICRAL's secure communications relay, gives Italy a distinctive role within NATO's space architecture.
Future Military Space Investment
Italy's 2025 defense planning includes the development of a new optical satellite system comprising two satellites for Earth observation, complementing the existing radar capability of COSMO-SkyMed. A new military communications satellite is also planned, with approximately EUR 80 million allocated in the 2025 budget for space modernization. The Italian government has additionally approved a feasibility study for a potential 100-satellite national constellation — a significant ambition that signals Italy's recognition that the future of military space lies in distributed architectures.
Science Missions: Italy's Instruments Across the Solar System
BepiColombo: Italy at Mercury
BepiColombo, the joint ESA/JAXA mission to Mercury, is one of the most complex interplanetary missions ever attempted — and Italian science is woven throughout its instrument suite.
The mission launched on October 20, 2018, and completed its final Mercury flyby on January 8, 2025. It is now on its final approach, with orbit insertion around Mercury scheduled for November 2026 (delayed from late 2025 due to thruster anomalies). Once in orbit, the spacecraft will separate into two orbiters: ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio).
Four of the sixteen instruments aboard BepiColombo were built by Italian institutions and industry:
- SIMBIO-SYS (Spectrometers and Imagers for MPO BepiColombo Integrated Observatory System): A suite of three channels — a stereo imaging camera (STC), a high-resolution imaging camera (HRIC), and a visible/near-infrared hyperspectral imager (VIHI) — developed by Italy with contributions from France and Switzerland. SIMBIO-SYS will provide the most detailed mapping of Mercury's surface ever achieved
- ISA (Italian Spring Accelerometer): A precision accelerometer that measures non-gravitational accelerations acting on the spacecraft, essential for the radio science experiments that will probe Mercury's internal structure and test general relativity
- SERENA (Search for Exosphere Refilling and Emitted Neutral Abundances): A suite of four particle detectors (ELENA, STROFIO, PICAM, and MIPA) that will characterize Mercury's tenuous exosphere and its interaction with the solar wind
- MORE (Mercury Orbiter Radio science Experiment): Developed by Italy and the United States, MORE will use precise radio tracking of the spacecraft to measure Mercury's gravity field, test Einstein's theory of general relativity, and probe the planet's internal structure
During the sixth Mercury flyby in January 2025, the ISA accelerometer detected real spacecraft vibrations, which scientists converted to audible frequencies — literally hearing the spacecraft shudder as it flew past the innermost planet. SIMBIO-SYS and SERENA also collected data during the flybys, providing tantalizing previews of what the full orbital mission will reveal.
AGILE: Italy's Gamma-Ray Pioneer
AGILE (Astro-Rivelatore Gamma a Immagini Leggero) was an Italian gamma-ray and X-ray astronomy satellite that operated for nearly 17 years — from its launch on April 23, 2007 to its deorbit on January 18, 2024. Built under ASI leadership with contributions from the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), AGILE was a compact but scientifically prolific mission.
AGILE's major discoveries included:
- The first identification of galactic cosmic ray sources in supernova remnants — a fundamental result in high-energy astrophysics
- Detection of gamma-ray flares from the Crab Nebula, overturning the long-held assumption that the Crab was a stable gamma-ray source. This discovery, announced in 2010, earned the AGILE team led by Marco Tavani the prestigious 2012 Bruno Rossi Prize from the American Astronomical Society
- Identification of gamma-ray emission associated with relativistic jets from the Cygnus X-3 binary system containing a black hole
For a satellite weighing just 350 kilograms, AGILE punched remarkably above its weight — much like the country that built it.
LARES and LARES-2: Testing Einstein from Orbit
The LARES (Laser Relativity Satellite) missions represent one of the most elegant experiments in fundamental physics ever conducted from space.
LARES-1, launched on the inaugural Vega flight in February 2012, and LARES-2, launched on the maiden Vega-C flight in July 2022, are dense tungsten alloy spheres studded with corner cube retroreflectors — 92 on LARES-1 and 303 on LARES-2. Ground stations of the International Laser Ranging Service fire laser pulses at the satellites and measure the return time, determining the satellite's position with a precision of approximately one millimeter.
The scientific goal is to measure the frame-dragging effect (also known as the Lense-Thirring effect) — a prediction of Einstein's general relativity in which the rotation of a massive body like Earth literally drags the fabric of spacetime around with it, subtly altering the orbital plane of nearby satellites. LARES-2, orbiting at approximately 6,000 kilometers altitude with a 70-degree inclination, is designed to measure this effect with an accuracy of a few parts per thousand — the most precise test of frame-dragging ever attempted.
These missions are pure fundamental physics, conducted with Italian ingenuity and European launch vehicles, testing predictions made by Einstein over a century ago.
LICIACube: The First Eyes on Planetary Defense
On September 26, 2022, NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft deliberately crashed into Dimorphos, the small moonlet orbiting the asteroid Didymos, in humanity's first test of kinetic-impactor planetary defense. But it was an Italian cubesat that captured the most dramatic images of the event.
LICIACube (Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids), provided by the Italian Space Agency and built by Argotec in Turin, was a briefcase-sized satellite weighing less than 14 kilograms. It separated from DART on September 11, 2022, and trailed behind the impactor at a safe distance of approximately 55 kilometers.
Three minutes after DART slammed into Dimorphos at roughly 6.1 kilometers per second, LICIACube flew past the impact site, capturing a sequence of images that showed bright material erupting from the asteroid's surface. Despite its diminutive size, LICIACube carried two cameras: LEIA (LICIACube Explorer Imaging for Asteroid) for high-resolution imaging and operational support, and LUKE (LICIACube Unit Key Explorer) for multi-wavelength color imaging that allowed scientists to analyze the properties of the ejected material.
The results were staggering. Analysis of LICIACube's images, published in Nature Communications, revealed that the impact ejected an estimated 16 million kilograms (35.3 million pounds) of dust and rock from Dimorphos — approximately 30,000 times the mass of the DART spacecraft itself, while representing less than 0.5 percent of the asteroid's total mass. The ejecta formed dramatic cone-shaped plumes and tentacle-like structures that LICIACube documented in unprecedented detail.
LICIACube was the first spacecraft to witness and image a planetary defense test at close range. An Italian cubesat, built in Turin, provided humanity with its first confirmation that we can intentionally alter the orbit of a celestial body. The mission demonstrated that even small, low-cost Italian-built spacecraft can contribute to missions of global significance.
The Future: Italy's Space Renaissance
The Space Economy Law
As detailed in Part 1, Italy approved its first comprehensive space economy framework law in June 2025 (Law 89/2025). This legislation declared space activities a "strategic national interest", established a single-window licensing regime for commercial space operations, created a Space Economy Fund with an initial EUR 35 million allocation, and imposed mandatory insurance requirements with a ceiling of EUR 100 million per space incident. Operators must submit space debris mitigation plans and register space objects in a national registry.
The law filled a gap that had left Italy — despite being Europe's third-largest space investor — without a modern regulatory framework governing private-sector space activities. It signals a maturation of Italy's space ambitions from purely institutional programs toward a mixed economy where commercial operators can access space under clear, predictable rules.
Space Rider: Europe's Reusable Orbital Laboratory
One of the most forward-looking programs in Italy's pipeline is Space Rider — an uncrewed, reusable orbital laboratory being developed under ESA leadership with Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor for the reentry module.
Space Rider is derived from the IXV (Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle), an experimental reentry vehicle built in Italy with strong ASI support that completed a successful suborbital test flight in February 2015. Space Rider extends the concept into a fully operational system: a two-part spacecraft consisting of an orbital module and a reentry module, roughly the size of two minivans, capable of carrying up to 800 kilograms of payload to orbit for missions lasting up to two months before returning to Earth for refurbishment and reuse.
In June 2025, the program achieved a major milestone with a successful closed-loop drop test at the Salto di Quirra test range in Sardinia, demonstrating the reentry module's autonomous guidance and control during atmospheric descent. The maiden flight, aboard a Vega-C rocket, is currently targeted for Q1 2028.
Space Rider will give Europe independent capability for microgravity research, in-orbit technology demonstrations, Earth observation experiments, and robotic exploration payload testing — all on a platform that can be recovered, refurbished, and reflown. It is, in essence, a miniature reusable space shuttle, and its heart is Italian.
The European Space Consolidation
Perhaps the most transformative development in Italy's space future is the historic merger announced on October 23, 2025, when Airbus, Leonardo, and Thales signed a Memorandum of Understanding to combine their respective space activities into a single new company. This new entity will merge Thales Alenia Space, Telespazio, and the space divisions of Airbus into a European space champion with:
- ~25,000 employees across Europe
- ~EUR 6.5 billion in annual revenue (2024 pro-forma)
- An order backlog exceeding three years of projected sales
- Ownership split: Airbus (35%), Leonardo (32.5%), Thales (32.5%)
Subject to regulatory approval and expected to be operational by 2027, this new company would represent Europe's answer to the competitive pressure from SpaceX's Starlink and other American and Chinese space enterprises. It would be, by far, the largest spacecraft manufacturer and space services company in Europe, and Italian industry — through Leonardo's combined stakes — would hold a 32.5 percent ownership share.
The merger, if completed, would position Italian space expertise at the center of a European champion with the scale to compete globally.
Lunar Ambitions
Italy's contributions to the Artemis-era lunar program extend beyond the Gateway modules. ASI has engaged Thales Alenia Space to study pressurized lunar habitation modules — surface habitats that could shelter astronauts during extended stays on the Moon. The expertise developed building ISS modules, Gateway modules, and Axiom station modules feeds directly into lunar surface architecture: the same challenges of pressure containment, thermal management, radiation shielding, and micrometeorite protection apply, with the added complexity of lunar dust and partial gravity.
Italy has positioned itself to be the nation that builds the places where humans live in space — whether in low Earth orbit, in lunar orbit, or on the lunar surface.
The Renaissance Thread, Revisited
In Part 1, we observed that Italy's space achievements reflect not abstract genius but artigianato — craftsmanship. The ability to manufacture physical objects of extraordinary precision and reliability, rooted in an industrial culture that descends from the same tradition producing Italian excellence in automotive engineering, precision machinery, and high-end manufacturing.
This second part has revealed the full extent of that craftsmanship's reach. The clean rooms of Turin. The 170 antennas of Fucino. The precision optics laboratories where Leonardo engineers build star trackers that can determine a spacecraft's orientation to within arcseconds by reading the patterns of stars. The drill designed to bore two meters beneath the Martian surface with a spectrometer embedded in its tip. The cubesat smaller than a carry-on suitcase that photographed humanity's first planetary defense test.
Every one of these is a work of craftsmanship. Every one was made in Italy.
There is a tendency, when discussing European space, to focus on the headline programs — Ariane rockets, Copernicus data, Galileo navigation — as if they are abstract European achievements unconnected to specific places and people. But every satellite in the Copernicus constellation was assembled somewhere. Every module on the ISS was welded somewhere. Every ground station antenna was calibrated somewhere. And a remarkable number of those somewheres are in Italy.
The Italian proverb that opens this article — chi fa da se fa per tre — captures something essential about Italy's approach to space. Italy did not wait for someone else to build its space capabilities. It built them itself: the rockets, the satellites, the modules, the ground stations, the instruments, the cubesats. And in doing so, it accomplished the work of a nation three times its size.
From Galileo Galilei's telescope to the Cupola's panoramic windows, from Luigi Broglio's oil-platform spaceport to the clean rooms where Axiom's modules take shape, the thread runs unbroken. Italy's space renaissance is not a metaphor. It is a manufacturing program, a scientific agenda, and a strategic commitment — and it is very much underway.
The second part of a two-part deep dive into Italy's space program. Read Part 1: Italy's Space Legacy: From San Marco to the Vega Rocket and Europe's Spacecraft Factory.
