The Italian Space Agency (ASI) was established in 1988 with the task of promoting, developing, and disseminating scientific and technological research applied to the space and aerospace fields and developing and implementing Italy’s space policy in compliance with government guidelines. ASI is among the top six space agencies in the world, a record that reflects the outstanding role that Italy plays in the space sector both at European and global level. Italy is the third largest contributor to the European Space Agency (ESA), after France and Germany, and one of the early signatories of the Artemis Accords for implementing NASA’s new lunar program. Italy is one of the few countries in the world that, through its own agency, operates in all space application fields.

ASI also demonstrates strong diplomatic capabilities establishing strategic collaborations with all the major space agencies. Thanks to these collaborations and continuous cooperation with the scientific community and Italian manufacturers, the Agency has achieved significant results in observing the universe from space, human and robotic exploration, space propulsion, telecommunications, satellite navigation and Earth observation. One of the most important results of these collaborations involves the International Space Station where Italian astronauts belonging to the European corps are often hosted. More than 50% of the living space on the Station is built by Italian industries.