Centro di Ricerca Progetto San Marco

About us

The San Marco Project Research Centre (CRPSM) is a research centre of the University of Rome "La Sapienza", and represents the continuation of the San Marco Project which, instituted in 1962 by his founding father, Prof. Luigi Broglio, marked the beginning and the earliest substantial development of Italian space activities bringing Italy to be the third country in the world, after Russia and United States, to send a satellite in orbit (San Marco I, 1964).

From the very beginning, the SMP, and later CRPSM, developed and actively pursued fruitful and mutually rewarding co-operative programmes mainly with NASA and, over time, with several Italian and foreign organizations such as the European Space Agency (ESA), Italian Air Force (AMI), National Council of Research (CNR), Italian Space Agency (ASI), U.S. and European Universities (Dallas, Michigan, New Hampshire, Max Planck Institute, etc.). Within the framework of the agreement with NASA the San Marco Project built and launched several satellites for scientific applications.

In 1964 CRPSM set up an operational base in Kenya (today L. Broglio Space Centre) comprising a launch base on sea platforms and a ground base equipped with TT&C (Tracking, Telemetry and Command) and Remote Sensing stations. The Broglio Space Centre (BSC) has been the world first launch base located near the equator for obtaining equatorial orbit with a minimum energy expenses. From this site 9 satellites and 20 sounding rockets have been launched up to the 1988. Four of the satellites were Italian, 4 from US and 1 from UK.

The current CRPSM activities concern:

• scientific research projects carried out autonomously;
• collaborations to national and international scientific and technological research programmes;
• maintenance and development activities and studies concerning the exploitation of the range technological resources;
• supports to space scientific and technological programmes by means of the TT&C (Telemetry Tracking and Control) and RS (Remote Sensing) Stations.

Many supports to satellite launch and orbital manoeuvres have been carried out up today. The improvement of the Base during the last few years makes it as the most important site of this kind in Africa. It also represents the main instrument of the University of Rome for the research development, training and international cooperation in the aerospace field. The last satellite launch took place in 1988.

Presently particularly active are the ground stations carrying out support operations for the principal space agencies of the world like ESA, NASA, BOEING, LOCKEED, ASI, CLTC (China), Telespazio and satellite remotely sensed data acquisition.

The training activities rely on suitable infrastructure of regional relevance from the point of view of the available equipments for training, satellite images and geophysical data acquisition systems.

The CRPSM is currently engaged in:

• research projects conducted autonomously;
• scientific and technological research programmes in collaboration with domestic and international organizations;
• development and optimisation studies of the technological resources available at BSC;
• support operations for scientific and technological programmes carried out at its Telemetry, Tracking, & Command, and Remote Sensing Stations.

The following are the operational centres of the CRPSM:

• head office and laboratories in Rome, officially known as Centro Ricerche Aerospaziali (CRA) where theoretical and experimental research, design, of aerospace systems and satellite image acquisition take place;
• Luigi Broglio Space Centre (BSC) at the Kenya coast (approximately 30 km north of Malindi) where most of the operational activities are performed;
• administrative office located in Mombasa (approximately 150 km south of Malindi).