History of the Italian Space Adventure

Giovanni Caprara is scientific editor of the Corriere della Sera and Professor of History of Space Exploration at the Politecnico di Milano (Polytechnic University of Milan). He is also curator of the Space section of the National Museum of Science and Technology "Leonardo da Vinci" in Milan. He has received many awards, including the ConScientia Award (scientific journalist of the year) from the universities of Milan in 2000, the European Science Writers Award from the Euroscience Foundation in 2010, and the Award for Scientific Communication from the Italian Physical Society (SIF) in 2016. Since 2011 he has been President of UGIS, the Union of Italian Scientific Journalists. In 2014 he was made a Knight of the Italian Republic. An asteroid in orbit between Mars and Jupiter bears his name (Caprara 10928). He is the author of numerous publications on the history of space science and exploration, published in Europe and the United States. Examples include: The Space Age (Mondadori), TheAdventure of Science (Rizzoli), A Brief History of the Great Scientific Discoveries (Bompiani), Discovering the Solar System (with Margherita Hack, Mondadori), Living Space (FireFly), Italy on the Shuttle (Mondadori), and The Complete Encyclopedia of Space Satellites (FireFly).

• Preface.- ​introduction.- 1 The “rocket” word appear for the first time in  Venice.- 2  The XIX Century, the “razzieri” of Sabaudo kingdom and Due Sicilie Kingdom.- 3 Pioneers and visionaries of the XX Century.- 4 The first Italian rockets and two German scientist in Italy.- 5  The African adventure of professor Luigi Broglio.- 6 Italy in Europe and in the world of space telecommunications.- 7 From Sirio satellite for telecommunications to national space program.- 8  The Italian Space Agency, the Italian astronauts, many satellites and Euro-Italian rocket Vega.-  Bibliography.- Index of names.- Credits.

“Nevertheless, A History of the Italian Space Adventure provides English speaking readers with a rare and useful look at Italy’s many underappreciated contributions to space exploration over the past few decades and the promise of its current programs.” (Christopher Gainor, Quest, Vol. 29 (1), 2022)