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Here is the government’s space course

10 months ago babelfish

Here is the government's space course

What emerged from the parliamentary hearing of the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, on the programmatic guidelines of the dicastery and on the government's space and aerospace policy

The much -vaunted national law on space is coming with the next maneuver in our country.

This is what Adolfo Urso, the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy with responsibility for Space, indicated during his hearing yesterday in the Productive Activities Commission on the government's space and aerospace policy.

Italy needs a space law that regulates "the space sector" because our country has no rules in this regard and yet "geopolitics is increasingly prominent" in activities in orbit, for this reason the law could already arrive "in the connected to the next financial manoeuvre” explained the holder of the delegation to Space.

But in addition to the geopolitical context, the minister recalled the strategic importance of the space sector also from an industrial point of view for our country. Above all in light of the potential repercussions: "in 2013 the economic value of the space economy had reached 260 billion dollars, a figure which today has exceeded 480 billion and which in the next decade will reach one trillion dollars, to exceed 2,700 billion dollars in 2040”. “It is a matter of continuous, unstoppable growth,” concluded Urso.

Furthermore, from an industrial point of view, Urso puts his finger in the wound and calls for a greater common commitment with the French partner on the Vega C launcher system, notes Il Sole 24 Ore . “The critical issues that have emerged, which we hope to overcome quickly, combined with the delays in the first launch of Ariane6, question the placing into orbit of important satellites of European constellations such as Galileo and Copernicus, and of future satellite constellations such as ours Iride and the European Iris2” admitted Minister Urso.

All the details.

SPACE LAW READY IN AUTUMN

"We expect to present the law as linked to the next financial manoeuvre," said Urso.

“We intend – Urso explained during his hearing – to present the connected issue on what concerns space in the next budget maneuver in order to work on it in Parliament next year and conclude it within the next budget maneuver”. The goal, explained the minister, is "to have the law approved by Parliament by the autumn of next year" because "it is an important law in which the critical issues that we consider important must be addressed".

Furthermore, "We need an intervention that integrates and updates the national legislation in force, also with regard to the governance of entities such as the Italian Space Agency and favors the growth of the national aerospace sector", added Urso.

TO ADDRESS THE CRITICAL ISSUES

On the other hand, observed the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy during the hearing, space "offers many opportunities but lends itself more and more to the ambitions of the terrestrial superpowers, which complicate the peaceful and safe use of terrestrial, especially the lower one. This makes a national and multilateral regulatory reorganization of the use of space even more topical”.

“There are four major criticalities – Urso specified –: the management of space junk, the militarization of space, the exploitation of important primary space resources and the consequences of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine”.

Regarding the first critical issue, space junk, "space companies such as Thales Alenia Space are working on it, with aircraft that recover debris or move it to other orbits, a very important and significant Italian technology and we want to enhance it".

STRATEGIC DOMAIN SPACE

“Our country – remarked Urso – has accompanied this commitment by investing considerable resources in the sector: today space is one of the most strategic sectors both for our economic development and in terms of international competitiveness. This interest can be understood both in the importance of scientific, technological and strategic developments deriving from space exploration and in the impressive amount of public and private capital that today and in the future will be moved in this context”.

THE INDUSTRIAL FALLS

Furthermore, the space sector is also strategic for our country from an industrial point of view given that "300 companies" operate in our area and that the country has a turnover of "4.5 billion euros a year in the space sector". The minister also noted that "there are 50,000 specialized workers, out of a total of 200,000 in the supply chain, which engages over 4,000 companies that make up the related industries" and "about 90%, as happens in the Italian model also for this innovative sector , are small and medium-sized enterprises”.

A EUROPEAN INDUSTRIAL POLICY IS NECESSARY

After that, the minister emphasized the importance of a strong European industrial policy, as already emerged during the ministerial meeting of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the trilateral summit of German, Italian and French companies, which alone represent 55% of European GDP, 3 of us represent the third largest manufacturing force in the world after the USA and China.

“With Le Maire we have found solutions for a European area supply chain. Our Italian, French and German companies have given answers in a trilateral agreement and this must be done at a European level” Urso explained. In this regard, we recall that on the first day of the ESA ministerial conference last November, France, Germany and Italy signed a joint declaration on the future framework for the use of European launchers.

The family of European launchers includes the Ariane and Vega launchers and the updated versions Ariane 6 (intended to carry satellites into high orbit) and Vega C (for medium-small satellites into low orbit). For Ariane 6 and Vega-C, “the allocation of funding will be commensurate with the commercial risks taken” to ensure their long-term competitiveness, the ministers agreed.

And now Urso anticipates that “I'll talk about it next week with Commissioner Breton: we are able to draw up a European industrial policy. We have the ability to be global players. A European industrial policy based on a common energy policy, and also and not only on a commercial policy”.

ABOUT THE SPACE PNRR

Finally, during his hearing, Minister Urso clarified that "the Pnrr envisages investments of 1.2 billion euros, to strengthen Earth observation systems, to monitor outer space and to strengthen national skills in 'space economy'” and “all the foreseen contracts have been concluded” and Italy “Italy is betting a lot on space”.

"All the contracts envisaged were concluded in due time" and the funds available under the Pnrr "will benefit both large and small and medium-sized enterprises" he reported. ( Here Startmag 's in-depth analysis on Come Thales and Leonardo will use the funds of the Pnrr ).

As part of the funding dedicated to space, Urso also recalled that there is "a further allocation to be managed with a special agreement stipulated with ESA" and "to this must be added a further 2 billion in investments approved by the Comint, the Committee inter-ministerial meeting for Space, which I preside over by delegation from the Prime Minister".

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/legge-spazio-governo-urso/ on Sun, 16 Jul 2023 05:06:14 +0000.