Italy
2012 – European Space Industry Employment
The European space workforce includes workers from ## European countries across three segments of the industry: spacecraft, launch, and ground. The five countries with the largest workforces, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Spain, accounted for more than ##% of the total European space workforce in 2011. The workforce numbers include industries involved in designing, developing, and manufacturing space systems in the spacecraft, launch, and ground sectors. The numbers do not include the workforce of companies developing consumer devices, such as GPS or satellite television receivers, nor do they include employment by companies that carry out space services based on the exploitation of space assets, such as launch service providers.
Vatican Library Saved by Heavenly Technology
Governments also employ space technology to safeguard important and culturally significant artifacts. When the Vatican library needed to digitize antique books, it turned to a data format originally developed for storing astronomical data. The “flexible image transport system” (FITS) was developed jointly by NASA and ESA in the 1970s and features several qualities that make it well suited for digitally archiving the Vatican collection.
Economy: Space Economy – TSR 2012
World Heritage Sites Protected Using Satellite Imagery
To protect sites around the world, the Global Heritage Fund, in cooperation with Google Earth and DigitalGlobe, has put together a program called the Global Heritage Network to provide satellite monitoring of World Heritage Sites.
2011 – United Kingdom Government Space Budget – Snapshot
Civil space activities in the United Kingdom (UK) are primarily funded through the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA), which became operational in April 2011, and the Technology Strategy Board (TSB). Space budgets for FY 10/11, which ran from April 2010 through March 2011, had not been published by the UKSA as of January 2012.
2011 – Italian Government Space Budget – Snapshot
The Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), Italy’s space agency, managed a planned budget of €## million (US$## million) in 2011, excluding contributions made to ESA.This represents a ##% increase from ASI-only planned spending of €## million (US$## million) in 2010. Italy’s contribution to ESA totaled €## million (US$## million) in 2011, an increase of ##% from 2010.
2011 – Ground Observatories, Astronomy – Snapshot
To improve the resolution from ground-based observatories and to capture light from distant, dim objects, telescopes are growing larger. Due to the correspondingly large cost of construction and operation, these massive telescopes are often supported financially by multinational consortia.
2011 – Trends That Are Shaping Space Activity
The outlook for space activity is largely positive, in spite of the challenges facing many of the governments and agencies most active in space. In many ways, 2011 was a pivotal year as governments re-evaluated their human spaceflight plans and examined their portfolio of space activities in light o… Thank you for visiting The Space…
2011 – Israeli Government Space Budget – Snapshot
Israel’s civil space budget remains small, estimated at ## million New Israeli Shekels (NIS) (US$## million) in 2011. This accounts for roughly ##% of the country’s 2011 national budget of ## billion NIS (US$## billion).