Page 30 - Italy In Space
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Space Astronomy [3]
October 17, 2002. Launch of the ESA satellite INTEGRAL (International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics
Laboratory) from Baikonur, atop a Russian Proton launcher. INTEGRAL, built in Italy by Alenia, is
the successor of the ESA gamma-ray observatory Cos-B. It will produce a complete map of the sky in
the soft gamma-ray waveband and in gamma rays. Commemorative cover postmarked with the special
bilingual Baikonur cancel (right) and “Proton” bilingual postmark (left)
June 11, 2008. Launch from Cape Canaveral of GLAST (Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope),
later referred as Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. It performs gamma-ray astronomy observations
from low Earth orbit. Joint venture of NASA with Italy, France, Germany, Japan, and Sweden that
continues the study started in 1975 by COS-B. Italy was responsible for the design and implementation
of LAT (Large Area Telescope). Operations supported by ASDC (ASI Science Data Center).
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