The event, organized in what can be defined as the seat of European democracy, aims to analyze the activities that revolve around aerospace together with the main players in the aerospace sector and key industry partners.

Carlo Corazza, Director of the European Parliament in Italy, opens the day by recalling the growth and competitiveness that space guarantees to our country in terms of services and benefits to citizens and businesses and the numerous positive transversal impacts. The circumstance also lends itself well to sharing the national pride of being part of this high-level sector in terms of skills and concrete participation.

Adolfo Urso, Minister of Business and Made in Italy, unable to intervene, leaves Director Carlo Corazza a message to read to highlight Italy’s role and the optimism with which we must look to the future.

Italy has been a space power since the dawn of the space race, it has invested huge resources in the sector and today space is a highly strategic sector both for economic development and for the growth of competitiveness.

The ambition is great as are the joint efforts with European partners; Important themes and bright prospects motivate commitment and investment.

Here it is recalled that the Italian contribution to the new cycle of programs of the European Space Agency will be 3.1 billion euros in five years, which allows Italy to be the third contributing country to the ESA budget and protection of the interests of the entire industrial chain of research innovation.

The Italian ambition is strong and is based on solid foundations, first of all the extraordinary competence that allows our country to play a leading role because it is among the very few that have a complete supply chain covering the entire cycle: from access to space for manufacturing, from consumer services to university research centres, with an excellent distribution of activities throughout the territory and in particular in Lazio, Lombardy, Piedmont, Campania and Puglia.

Space is a great game which, with its rapid progression, not only has strategic relevance at a daily level but is also a very valid model of international cooperation and an important tool for the implementation of priority European policies: digital agenda, green deal , defense and security. We hope to be able to progress in other sectors with the same attitude and openness.

We talked about private investments, the commercial use of space, the economy of low orbit, missions to and around the Moon, European infrastructures and underlying technologies and inevitably also the Lunar Economy and the geopolitical value, scientific and economic to position assets in a cislunar environment with the imminent prospect of living and operating on the Planet.

To sum up there is a very strong attention to the space sector and good industrial positioning which allows us to make an important policy also at an international level and with reference to the PNRR the space has performed as requested; this is demonstrated by the numerous activities and objectives achieved by ESA and ASI.

The activity of the Clusters constantly guarantees the connection between national and regional policies, the valorisation of territorial excellence and an always active and participatory network of contacts to allow the system with numerous entities active in the sector to contribute to innovation with the appropriate and the best skills.

Much has been done and there is still much to do.

To resolve the critical issue that has seen technology run faster than regulatory aspects, clear planning and rules for space are needed from the point of view of exploration and commercialization, sustainability and launches. To obtain an overall, reasoned and organic vision and safeguard national assets and competitiveness for our industry, there are three fundamental aspects that need to be guaranteed: governance, responsibility and skills.

To ensure constant, high-level growth for the country, it is recommended to discover and cultivate the growth of new talents, to transfer to the new generations the knowledge that is the heritage of those who “created” the space and are now at the end of the activity.

A reduction in bureaucracies is encouraged to encourage SMEs, start-ups and more generally the rapid circulation of ideas and the realization of projects; the definition of clear roadmaps and the creation of experimentation laboratories are recommended.

We hope for an integration between upstream and downstream and an increasingly profitable transversality.

If we think of Space as a new frontier of experimentation, with our possibilities and our scientific and technological excellence we can achieve important objectives.

Telecommunications, Earth observation, returning to the Moon and the possibility of building space factories for the future. What more?