ROME (ITALPRESS/MNA) – As part of his official visit to Kenya, the Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, visited the “Luigi Broglio” Space Centre in Malindi, in the Ngomeni peninsula. The visit of Minister Urso, responsible for space and aerospace policies, took place 60 years after the foundation of the centre, established in 1964 as part of the San Marco project and named after its founder, Professor Luigi Broglio, where the adventure for the Italian space initiatives began.?During his visit in Kenya, Minister Urso was accompanied by the president of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), Teodoro Valente, by General Franco Federici, military advisor to the Prime Minister and secretary of the Interministerial Committee for Space. He was also accompanied by a delegation from the main Italian companies in the aerospace sector (Avio, Leonardo, Telespazio) and by Confindustriàs delegate for Aerospace, Giorgio Marsiaj.
After visiting the ASI Space Centre in Malindi, Urso and the Minister of Defense of Kenya, Soipan Tuya, chaired a meeting of the Joint Council of Ministers. At the centre of the initiative, relaunched by Urso in 2023 after a long period of inactivity, is the future of the Malindi space centre, where 200 people are currently working in orbital control and data reception from satellites and vectors. This base, managed by the Italian Space Agency, and the International Training School in space disciplines, could become the fulcrum, as part of the Mattei Plan promoted by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, in space cooperation extended to the countries in the Horn of Africa and East Africa.?”Over 60 years ago, Italy’s space adventure began in Malindi. Today we wish to give a new mission to this base, which could become the training place for space operators from African countries who have just established their continental space agency”, declared Minister Urso. The African space agency will be based in Cairo, where Minister Urso has already visited to lay the foundations for future collaboration with Italy. The Italian Space Agency “could also train the first Kenyan, and therefore African, astronaut in history, with the same methods and techniques with which Italian astronauts are trained today” added Urso.
“Earth observation from space, a sector in which Italy is a leader, offers further opportunities for cooperation with Africa for the management of natural resources, the promotion of sustainable agriculture and the fight against climate change, he continued. Urso added, “Artificial intelligence and space highlight how innovative the Mattei Plan is, capable of laying the foundations for the development of Africa, a path in which Italy will be able to take on a leading role”.
During the visit to the space centre, Minister Adolfo Urso, together with the Minister of Defense of Kenya, Soipan Tuya, and the president of ASI, Teodoro Valente, inaugurated the “Luigi Broglio Space Museum”. The museum recounts the story of this first equatorial maritime launch base in the world, from which a total of 9 satellite launches were carried out, starting with the Italian satellite “San Marco 2” on 26 April 1967, and around 20 orbital launches.
– Photo MIMIT press office –
(ITALPRESS).
