From the agreement with NASA an assist for the space industry

"A national and strategic investment for the space economy'. For the president of the Italian Space Agency, Teodoro Valente, the agreement signed a few days ago in Washington by Minister Adolfo Urso with NASA CEO Jared Isaacman, allows Italia to take an important step forward, with the supply of the first astronauts' house on the Moon, the living module built by Thales Alenia Space, having a wide-ranging impact on the entire sexton.

'The joint declaration signed last week between the Space delegate, Minister Adolfo Urso, and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman,' explains Valente, 'is part of, and reinforces, the historic bilateral collaboration between Italia and the United States, and between Asi and NASA. It is not a simple planting of the Italian flag on lunar soil: it is much more and much more substantial in terms of overall impact. The first habitat, which will be built by Thales Alenia Space Italia and will see the involvement of the entire productive system of the sector, has become a fully-fledged element of the future base camp of the Artemis mission, for a stable human presence on the lunar surface. The module is an acknowledgement of Italian capabilities, skills, experience, and technologies that will bring important spin-offs to our industrial system, both for the large and small and medium enterprises involved. The declaration recalls the historic moment of the signing of the 1997 Memorandum between Asi and Nasa, an agreement that allowed the Italia space system to build about half of the Space Station's living modules. The Italian astronauts' home is the result of a forward-looking approach that also looks to the long term and will allow us to maintain Italy's leadership in the domain of space infrastructure for human exploration of the Moon. It is a national and strategic investment for the space economy, whose activities supported by Asi are already underway'

The long-standing relationship between Italia and NASA is actually 'foundational' for our space sector. It was the Scout launcher that put the San Marco satellite into orbit back in 1964, making our country third in the world towards the conquest of space. More than 60 years later, it is now Italia that is providing key support for the success of the new mission. 'The module,' explains Valente, 'is recognition of Italian capabilities, skills, experience and technologies that will bring important spin-offs to our industrial system, both for large companies and the small and medium enterprises involved. The declaration recalls the historic moment of the signing of the 1997 Memorandum between Asi and Nasa, an agreement that enabled the Italian space system to build about half of the Space Station's living modules. The Italian astronauts' home is the result of a forward-looking approach that also looks to the long term and will allow us to maintain Italy's leadership in the domain of space infrastructure for human exploration of the Moon'.

Thales Alenia Space (a joint venture with Thales 67% and Leonardo 33%) will play a key role. "Thales Alenia Space has always worked synergistically with the Italian industrial supply chain,' explains CEO Giampiero Di Paolo, 'and the development of the multi-purpose living module represents a further important opportunity for the entire sector. Thanks to the role of Asi, the consolidated skills of our company, together with those of Leonardo and Altec, together with numerous Italian industrial partners, we are leading the preliminary design phase, also developing the necessary technologies and creating significant synergies and spin-offs for the entire Piedmontese aerospace district and the entire Italian industrial supply chain. This project will not only contribute to the technological and scientific development for a sustainable human presence on the Moon, but will also advance the knowledge and technologies that are indispensable to support future human missions to Mars'.

Collaboration with the USA historically involves our industrial bigwigs but also an array of SMEs. Like Argotec, the only European company to have had its components in two Nasa missions at the same time (a microsatellite in the Dart mission to intercept an asteroid, another in the first Artemis mission). "The US market is growing rapidly,' explains Argotec founder David Avino, 'and for us the experience with NASA was fundamental: by demonstrating our ability to carry out missions even in deep space, we made the world understand our capabilities and level of reliability. This experience will be repeated shortly, with an Esa mission to detect meteorite activity on the dark side of the Moon, a mission that will also be useful in function of the new base that will be built'.