Dave (9:00)

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Maria Varmazas (9:42)

T minus will be in Florida next week for Commercial Space Week. I am looking forward to it IMMENSELY and day one kicks off with the Global Spaceport Alliance's annual spaceport summit. And I spoke to Giovanni D'Antonio from the Italian Civil Aviation Authority recently. He shared with me some updates about the Cryptali Spaceport in the Puglia region of Italy.

Giovanni D'Antonio (10:07)

I am Giovanni D'Antonio, director of technological innovation at Enec, the Italian civil Aviation Authority, which is the equivalent of the FAA in the United States or CAA uk, for example. And of course we are dealing with aviation, but also with the emerging topics of Aviation like commercial space transportation, hydrospace operations, drones and so on and so forth.

Maria Varmazas (10:36)

Well, thank you so much for joining me. And there is so much happening in Italy in aerospace. It's quite amazing to hear all the news, all the announcements, very exciting things happening, not least of which is the spaceport. So tell me a little bit about cryptalje about the spaceport specifically, of course.

Giovanni D'Antonio (10:59)

And let me say the journey started a decade ago, in 2014, when ENAC designated the airport that airport has suitable for aeronautical industrial activities and research and test activities. That year we also entered into an agreement, a memorandum of cooperation with the faa AST specifically signed with George Nild that at that time was the associate administrator to promote the commercial suborbital operations in Italy. And since then our Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport tasked us to develop the regulatory framework for spaceports and suborbital operations. And with a specific address act in 2018, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport designated identified Grottalia SPACeport as the first spaceport in Italy for suborbital operations. And since then we continue to develop the regulation. And in 2002 we set up a specific association, the Kryptalia Spaceport association, with the aim to guide and steer the development of the site based on an holistic and coherent vision. The characteristic of our spaceport is thought for horizontal operations, which means it is a 3km Runway airport for horizontal and takeoff orbital and suborbital operations, which means basically in principle, air launching into orbit, re entry from orbit and suborbital flight. And specifically in this moment we would like to develop this last sector, the suborbital flight. And our vision for the spaceport is that may become a reference point, a reference base for suborbital activities, for sure in the European Union, but in general in the Mediterranean Basin.

Maria Varmazas (13:19)

Absolutely. You answered a whole bunch of my questions in that right there, beautifully. So thank you. I appreciate that answer very much. Thank you. It gives me a better sense of how the spaceport fits in with the overall ecosystem and how it's going to help develop so much of the already very strong aerospace space ecosystem, not just in Italy, but also in the Mediterranean and in Europe in general. So I want to skip ahead a little bit to the agreement that you all signed with Virgin Galactic, which was very interesting to hear about that news. Please tell me more about that.

Giovanni D'Antonio (13:56)

Of course, aside developing the regulation, aside facilitating the ecosystem and building the infrastructure, of course we need an operator and since last year we have been working diligently with Virgin Galactic to let me say finalize this agreement with foresee the development of a feasibility study to understand, to identify the conditions under which suborbital operations could be carried out in Italy at Crustagi spaceport in our environment, according to our regulation, our technical regulation. So basically this study will be divided into two phases. The first phase will be devoted to the technical feasibility and will be carried out this year. In this first phase, we are going to assess ground and day risk in terms of expected casualties calculation and day risk contour for the management of the airspace. The procedures for the air stress management and specifically tailored to Virgin Galactic operations. Procedures that we have been simulating in this week, for example, in Eurocontrol, in Paris, at Eurocontrol Innovation Hub. Because we are trying to simulate some assumption we would like to validate during the feasibility study directly with Virgin Galactic. Then we are going to assess the needs for ground infrastructures in terms of building layout, operational procedures, like for example, the handling and storage of the propellants and so on and so forth. Then the environmental issues, specifically you can imagine toxicity, emissions and noise, including the problem of the sonic boom, of course, that we expect to have over land. Probably we will see. And finally, let me say the also we are going to assess to which extent the new design of the vehicle of Virgin Galactic will be able to comply with our regulations. Because one of the main differences we have with the US Regulation is that we also have some high level performance based requirement for the safety of the occupants, which is something different from the United States. Very, very high level. But we would like to ensure, let me say, a minimum level of safety for the occupants. And to that end it will be important to have a minimum assessment of the design of the vehicle. And so we are also going to assess this one also to understand whether it would be possible to optimize the expected casualties calculation based on more, let's say, failure, more representative failure rates of the vehicles. Because our environment is more complex than the environment where Virgin Galactic flies in the United States. In the United States there are deserts. We don't have desert, but we have the sea. But nevertheless, we are close to dense populated areas. So our big effort will be to try to understand how to mitigate this problem and how to reach the goal to ensure minimum level of safety for people on ground in this complex environment. And the second phase of the study, after the completion of this phase, we are going to assess how the industry, the Italian industry base, may support and take benefit from these operations in terms of partnership agreements.

Maria Varmazas (18:07)

Yes, there's so much that goes into an agreement like this. So much research to be done, so much to be determined. It is quite a lot of work. I know part of the reason that you and I are speaking today is because of the Global Spaceport Alliance. It's sort of what brought us together. Can you tell me a little bit about how you have found working with that alliance and also with other spaceports to advance your mission?

Giovanni D'Antonio (18:31)

Yes, this is also linked to our long term vision. This question because our long term vision is from one side to allow daily operations for suborbital operations for space tourism experimentations and also training based on the Virgin Galactic operations. But the second piece of the vision we have is the point to point transportation. In the future we would like to make the cortail spaceport a node of an intercontinental network of spaceport where it could be possible to fly point to point suborbitally. And to do so of course we should strengthen our relationship with other spaceport around the world and in particular with spaceport in the United States. That's why we choose to join the gsa, the Global Spaceport Alliance. Because this will offer us the possibility to have these relationships with other spaceport to exchange experience first of all, but also in the future to possibly build relationships for allowing the point to point transportation. And another important reason why we are very happy to be a member of this organization is also because in Europe we have also founded a similar group of people which is named the European Commercial Spaceport Forum where the majority of institutions are dealing with spaceport participate in terms of automation authorities and space agencies. And our participation in both group could be a good opportunity to threaten the relationship between Europe and United States in this field.

Maria Varmazas (20:42)

We'll be right back.

Dave (20:48)

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Maria Varmazas (22:07)

Welcome back. Every year on the fourth Thursday of January, NASA observes its Day of Remembrance. This year, that day is today, January 23rd. The day of Remembrance, NASA says, is to honor members of NASA who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery, including the Crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. Participating members of the public, as well as NASA staff, often lay wreaths and place flowers for these fallen crew at memorials around the country, including at Arlington National Cemetery, where many of these brave explorers have memorials and grave markers, and also at Kennedy Space center in Florida. As humanity continues to push the boundaries of exploration and return to the moon and one day go to Mars and beyond, we should always take a moment to remember the sacrifices of those who gave their lives for space. Per Aspera Ad Astra that's it for T minus for January 23, 2020, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. For additional resources from today's report, check out our show notes@space.n2k.com we're privileged that N2K and podcasts like T Minus are part of the daily routine of many of the most influential leaders and operators in the public and private sector, from the Fortune 500 to many of the world's preeminent intelligence and law enforcement agencies. This episode was produced by Alice Carou. Our associate producer is Liz Stokes, were mixed by Elliott Peltzman and Trey Hester, with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Ibin. Our executive editor is Brandon Karpf, Simone Petrella is our president, Peter Kilpe is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Vermazes. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.

Dave (24:11)

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