(Adnkronos) – Italy can achieve “a competitive edge” in the increasingly important space and satellite systems sector, deputy foreign minister Edmondo Cirielli said during a visit to the ‘Piero Fanti’ Fucino Space Centre in the central Abruzzo region.
“Facilities such as the Fucino Space Centre give Italy a competitive edge in the space and satellite systems sector,” a foreign ministry statement cited Cirielli as saying.
“The sector is of growing strategic relevance in a wide range of areas, from security to telemedicine, from connectivity to development,” Cirielli said.
The Fucino Space Centre also represents “cutting-edge technological excellence”, which is further strengthened by an international cooperation network containing with major European partners such as France and Germany, Cirielli stated.
Currently operated by Telespazio with 170 antennas and 370,000 square metres of surface area, the Fucino Space Centre is recognised as the world’s largest and most important civil-use teleport, said the statement.
The teleport also hosts the COSMO-SkyMed Earth observation satellite constellation’s mission planning and control centre and one of two control centres managing the European satellite navigation and localisation system Galileo, the statement noted.
