San Marco programme
 Italian Ministry of Defence - San Marco 3 (San Marco C) programme from development to launch
|
The San Marco programme was an Italian satellite launch programme conducted between the early 1960s and the late 1980s. The project resulted in the launch of the first Italian-built satellite, San Marco 1, on December 15, 1964. With this launch Italy became one of the first countries in the world to operate its own satellite, after the Soviet Union, United States, United Kingdom (Ariel 1, 1962) and Canada (Alouette 1, 1962). San Marco was a collaboration between the Italian Space Research Commission (CRS) (a branch of the National Research Council), led by Luigi Broglio and Edoardo Amaldi, and NASA. In total 5 satellites were launched during the programme, all using American Scout rockets. The first flew from Wallops Flight Facility with the rest conducted from the San Marco Equatorial Range. The last satellite, San Marco-D/L, launched on March 25, 1988.
Luigi Broglio, who had gained aeronautical experience during World War II, became a major in the Aeronautica Militare Italiana (AMI) in 1950. In 1956 he was assigned leadership of the force’s Ammunition Research Unit, responsible for the military’s rocket programme, by General Secretary of Aeronautics Mario Pezzi. The unit ran the Salto di Quirra rocket test range on Sardinia and Broglio would have his first experience of working with American rocketeers when the AMI was involved in weather experiments using Nike-Cajun rockets to release sodium clouds for study.
While Soviet and American teams had been working on plans for orbiting research satellites for a number of years, the launch on 4 October 1957 of the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, began the Space Race in earnest and America soon launched its own Explorer 1 system in response. After Sputnik there was a desire from other countries to enter this new field of research and technological capability.
...
Wikipedia