The appointment is at 9:30 on 8 July, when the procession of vintage cars driven by crews from all over the world will ride through the spectacular “Piero Fanti” antennas in the “Avezzano Circuit”, a sportscar event organised by the Abruzzo Drivers Club and part of the wider “Abruzzo Grand Tour”.
As evidence of the continuous dialogue of past, present and future, the vintage cars will roar past some of the most iconic parts of the Space Centre, such as the Fucino 1 antenna (that broadcast in Italy the images of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon in 1969), the huge, 29-metre diameter Fucino 2 antenna and the stern of the Elettra, the ship where in the 1820s and 1830s Guglielmo Marconi staged his first wireless telegraph experiments.
As it moves past the Centre, the procession will come close to other infrastructure elements that contribute to confirming the “Piero Fanti” centre is one of the most important civilian teleports, such as the Italian Galileo Control Centre (GCC-I) which, jointly with the Twinned Centre in Oberfaffenhoppen in Germany, controls the European satellite constellation for global positioning, Galileo, or the LEOP Control Facility, where the phases immediately after launch of some of the most important space missions are managed.
After leaving the Space Centre behind, the procession of vintage cars will complete a 160 km route, driving through some of the most attractive towns and landscapes in Abruzzo, such as Pescasseroli and the Forca d’Acero pass, returning to Avezzano late in the afternoon.
Inaugurated in 1965, the Fucino Space Centre is today one of the centres of excellence of Italian technology and innovation and, thanks to its over 170 spectacular antennas, it is also a much-in-demand cinema set. Over the years, several science fiction TV series were filmed here, including the Italian remake of “A for Andromeda” and “Sound”, and the videoclip for Lucio Dalla’s song “Liberi”.
The 'Abruzzo Grand Tour' and the 'Avezzano Circuit' were presented yesterday, 4 July, at the Fucino Space Centre in the presence of the Centre's Director, Gianni Riccobono, provincial and regional authorities and local mayors, as well as the event's organisers.
