Undersecretary Tabacci was welcomed to the Fucino Space Centre by Luigi Pasquali, Coordinator of Leonardo’s Space Activities and Telespazio CEO. The visiting delegation also included general Luigi Francesco De Leverano, Deputy Chief of the Defence General Staff and Military Counsellor to the Presidency of the Council, Giorgio Saccoccia, President of the Italian Space Agency, and Thales Alenia Space Italia CEO Massimo Comparini.
With 170 antennas in a 370,000 square metre area, “Piero Fanti” Space Centre in Fucino, in the province of L’Aquila, has been in operation since 1963 and is regarded as the world’s first and most important civil teleport.
At the Space Centre, Telespazio not only launches into orbit and controls satellites and telecommunications, television and multimedia services but operates its Control Centre for the COSMO-SkyMed Earth Observation satellite constellation and one of the two Control Centres managing the European Galileo satellite navigation and localisation system.
“Fucino represents the heart and the history of Telespazio’s work and of space communications in Italy. The presence of Undersecretary Tabacci, General De Leverano and President Saccoccia offers proof of the constant support of the institutions for Italy’s space industry, and I am particularly happy that this opportunity should emerge in the year in which we celebrate Telespazio’s 60th birthday, for the company took its first steps in the newly emerging satellite communications industry in Fucino in the early ’60s.”
Luigi Pasquali – Telespazio CEO.
Before going to the Fucino Space Centre, Undersecretary Tabacci had visited the Thales Alenia Space Satellite Integration Centre in Rome. The two centres are the pride and joy of the Space Alliance between Leonardo and Thales, a strategic partnership which began in 2005 and includes the two joint venture, Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio.