The goal is very ambitious: to organize a real tourist vacation in space for a few days.
In this moment of great interest and curiosity towards space tourism, few know that the Italian Space Agency (ASI) has been working in this sense since 2018 and that it is working on the construction of a national spaceport in Grottagle, in Puglia, now in the stage of consolidation.
The National Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC) has approved the regulation for the operation of the spaceport, which will be ready to host the first takeoff from 2023. This could also happen thanks to the partnership between Altec (Aerospace Engineering Technology Corporation), a subsidiary of ASI, and Richard Branson Virgin Galactic.
The goal is very ambitious: to organize a real tourist vacation in space for a few days and not a “simple” sub-orbital flight of a few minutes.
David Aveno, managing director of Argotec (aeronautical engineering company) told Adnkronos: “In Italy we have the entire supply chain to think of a ‘space vacation’: we are equipped with comfort systems, advanced space technologies, and modules to stay in orbit.”
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