The first Italian scientific suborbital mission that will see aboard the space plane will be presented in Rome at the headquarters of the Air Force Staff Spaceship-2 the company Virgin Galactic a crew made up of personnel from the Azzurri and the National Research Council. Sixty years after the first suborbital flight carried out by the Mercury capsule, the joint initiative between AM and CNR represents the first mission of this type in Europe.
The mission will take place at the end of September at the Spaceport America, the world's first commercial operational spaceport, located in New Mexico (USA).
The President of the National Research Council, Prof.ssa, will be present at the presentation press conference Maria Chiara Carrozza, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General of the Air Team Alberto Rosso, and in liaison from the United States, the CEO of Virgin Galactic, Michael Colglazier, and the US astronaut Sirisha Bangla.
During the presentation, the name and logo of the mission will be presented, as well as the objectives of the mission, with particular attention to the important benefits and synergies from a scientific, operational and training point of view, as part of a consolidated collaboration between Aeronautica Militare and CNR started with the signing of a framework agreement in 2019 and recently strengthened in the Commercial Spaceflight sector. The crew that will take part in the mission will be present, illustrating in detail the series of scientific experiments that will be conducted in microgravity during the flight, together with a representative of the teams of experimenters directly involved in the activities.