Ambassador Luca Sabbatucci, Italian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Paris, paid a visit to the European Space Center for Research and Technology (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. This is the largest structure of the European Space Agency (ESA), where the technologies that make the Agency’s space missions possible are designed and developed. In particular, the ESTEC Center is the largest satellite test and verification facility in Europe. Worthy of note within the Center are the Large Space Simulator, a test area in which the behavior of satellites is verified in an environment similar to space, and the Concurrent Design Facility, a place where most of ESA’s projects it is conceived, developed and evaluated before becoming reality. On the sidelines of the meeting with the Director of the Centre, Dietmar Pilz, Ambassador Sabbatucci recalled how Italy is the third largest contributor to the ESA budget. “Italy is a leading country in the space sector.
From research to exploration, from earth observation to astronauts in orbit: our country represents an example of avant-garde and the growth prospects are still very vast. Thanks to the synergy between the Italian Space Agency and ESA – continued the diplomat -, we can aim for new areas of development, both in terms of product marketing and scientific knowledge”. During the visit, the Ambassador also had a meeting with part of the team of Italian engineers working in the Dutch Centre, also with the aim of establishing a direct and constant communication channel with the Permanent Representation.
