Italy was a partner Country in the 4th edition of SpaceCom international Expo in Houston, the most important exposition in the United States on advanced technologies applied to the aerospace sector. The Italian Consulate General, together with the ICE-Agency, took care of setting up an exhibition space grouping the 15 Italian companies that make up consortia in the aerospace sector of Piedmont, Lombardy and Campania, and attended by the institutional representatives of the three Italian Regions, including the Vice President of the Region of Lombardy, Fabrizio Sala. At the event opening, Mauro Piermaria, the head of the Department of Government Affairs of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), illustrated the peculiarity of the Space Economy in Italy, and the CEO of Virgin Galactic, George Whitesides, recalled the agreement recently signed with the Apulian Angel Group. Practically in parallel, the Italian Embassy in Washington hosted the seminar “Aerospace Dialogue: a business opportunity”, which was also attended by the Undersecretary for Economic Development, Geraci. The event confirmed the excellent state of relations between the Italian aerospace sector and the major American companies operating in this sector. In his address, Geraci underscored the government’s attention for a sector as strategic as that of aerospace. Ambassador Armando Varricchio recalled the deep ties between NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), which have recently expanded their cooperation to the Insight probe programme destined to land on Mars. In fact, the probe is expected to carry the Star Tracker, a stellar sensor designed and manufactured by Leonardo in Italy and a last-generation micro-reflector (”LERRI”) developed by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics and manufactured with the support of ASI. Ambassador Varricchio also stressed the important partnership between the public and private sectors that have led to establishing significant commercial relations between Italian and American companies in the last four years.
