Undersecretary Manlio Di Stefano has participated in the virtual conference “Space Diplomacy 2.0” organised by Formiche and Airpress magazines in cooperation with the Italian Space Agency. The event was also attended by astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) Director, Simonetta Di Pippo, and the Italian Space Agency President, Giorgio Saccoccia.
At the opening of his speech, the Undersecretary recalled the promising numbers of the Italian space sector, made up of over 200 companies, for a total of 7,000 employees in 10 national technological districts and a total turnover of over 1.6 billion per year.
“The space sector” – Mr Di Stefano continued – “is an indispensable asset for the growth and development of the economy as well as one excellence of our country. Today Italy is one of the few countries to have
a space and aerospace sector characterised by a complete supply chain of products and services. We aim to strengthen this sector and, in this regard, I remind you that for every euro invested in space, up to 7 euros are generated, and on average about 2.5″.
Undersecretary Di Stefano also recalled that the Italian experience is widely recognised internationally, as demonstrated by the participation of our country since last year in NASA’s ARTEMIS program, which Mr Di Stefano concluded “ensures not only the international positioning of Italy but also the participation of national industry, on a commercial basis, to the construction of the housing module of the future station in lunar orbit.”
