The Italian-made Vega launcher will launch
Italian satellite Prisma, whose images will help study natural
resources and environmental processes like climate change and
the effects produced on the environment by pollution thanks to
an agreement signed today at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget.
The agreement was signed at the international aviation and
aerospace exhibition with president and general director of
Italian Space Agency (ASI), Roberto Battiston and Anna Sirica,
Stéphane Isral, the president and director general of
Arianespace, and by the representatives of OHB Italia,
manufacturer of the Prisma satellite, Roberto Aceti, and of
Leonardo defense and aerospace giant, Marco Stanghini,
respectively CEO and senior vice-president of the Airborne and
Space Systems Division.
Prisma (Precursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa),
whose launch is scheduled in mid-2018, is a satellite with a
hyperspectral sensor and a medium-resolution panchromatic
camera.
Battiston expressed satisfaction for the use of Vega for the
launch as "our country has worked, in various national and
European institutions, to support a policy in favor of the use
of European launchers, and in particular Vega, a launcher born
in Italy and subsequently adopted by the European Space Agency
in which Italian firms have key roles, from an industrial
standpoint".
Sirica said that, "this contract inaugurates the completion
of the construction phase of a mission that will enable Italy,
as of next year, to receive precious information to support
activities to manage environmental and anthropic risks, to
monitor and manage agricultural resources and forests and
control anthropic activities and exploit mineral resources".
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