IAC-08-E4.2.

LUIGI BROGLIO: THE FIRST ITALIAN SPACE-DREAMER.

Ms. Daniela Cipollone

Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale, Roma, Italy,
danielacipollone@hotmail.it

ABSTRACT

Italians generally believe that their country has nothing to do with space. Everyone is
aware of the achievements of great scientists such as Guglielmo Marconi or Enrico
Fermi but only few people know anything about the figure of Luigi Broglio. Von
Karman tagged him “the space man” and he represents, beyond any doubt, the father
of the Italian space program. His professional activity spans the great part of the
twentieth century and it represents an ideal bridge between the first successes
achieved by the Italian aviation and the first steps moved in the space field. Broglio
embodied better than anyone else the spirit of this congress “from imagination to
reality”: the perfect mix of the Ulysses spirit with a brilliant mind. His biography
recounts a life of service, honor, and traditional values. Broglio has always been
known for his integrity, common sense, courage and leadership. Under the lead of this
strong and lone man Italy reached incredible goals such as the first European
supersonic wind tunnel and space simulator and the first worldwide equatorial launch
site, the San Marco platform, from which it’s possible to inject a satellite into a direct
equatorial orbit. Italy was the third country to launch a satellite after the URSS and
the USA. In 1971 NASA officially recognized the San Marco team as the best launch
team of the year. Luigi Broglio wished to create a school, a culture, a tradition for his
country and he is, still today, a powerful source of inspiration in an age that needs,
more than ever before, the values that Luigi Broglio personified. The aim of this
paper is to give a simple behind-the scenes account of the life of a man who held in
his hands the firsts and at the same time the greatest Italian space enterprise, as a
posthumous thank you.

1. Story of a Space-man.

Dwight Eisenhower said: “Neither a city of La Fayette. The U.S.

government offered him the chance to
wise man nor a brave man lies down
become a citizen but he refused and
on the tracks of history to wait for the
eventually returned to Italy. Not long
train of the future to run over him.”
afterwards, the U.S. Air Force offered
This is the story of a wise and brave
him the opportunity of a collaboration
man who wholly dedicated himself to
and Broglio proposed a research on
the aeronautic and astronautic
blow-down wind tunnels. In 1952 he
sciences. Born in 1911, Luigi
was elected dean of the School of
Broglio’s life spans the great part of
Aeronautical Engineering. Here he
the twentieth century, a time of
built, with his best students, the first
cultural earthquakes. The Wright
European Mach 4 wind tunnel using
brothers made their first flight only
some old compressors and tanks
eight years before his birth and the
refurbished from dismissed
airplane was still a handmade toy.
submarines. All was done in a very
After graduating, in 1934, in civil
pioneristic way, and accidents did
engineering and in 1938 in
happen; for instance, the first test
aeronautical engineering at the School
caused the crumbling of a wall. Some
of Aeronautical Engineering in Rome,
years later, thanks to the foresight of
he enrolled as lieutenant in the Italian
the then Aeronautical Secretary
Air Force. Later on, in 1940, he
General, Broglio and his team were
graduated also in mathematics and
able to pursue their research in an old
physics. During the Second World War
airport in Rome. But they still needed
he dealt with war fighter design: in
funding so Broglio had the nerve to
particular he worked on the RE-2005,
ask for money to the government, the
a jet plane. This plane has been the
Italian Air Force and even to Theodore
first jet plane built in Europe. In 1946
Von Karman, then president of the
he became professor. In 1949 Broglio
AGARD (Advisory Group for
was invited as visiting professor in the
Aeronautical Research and
U.S. at the University of Purdue in the
Development). So thanks to his own
audacity Broglio realized the first
European Mach 6 (blow-down) wind
tunnel.
2. Higher and higher.
Fig 1: Luigi Broglio.
In 1956 the Italian Air Force called
him to direct the Arms
Ammunitions Research Department,
which was involved, among other
things, in missile research. At that time
no one in Italy knew anything about
space technology. Even within the
University there were only sporadic
mentions to missile technology. This
opportunity and his innate thirst for
knowledge turned him from a world-
class expert in aeronautical science
into a resolute seeker
possibilities to fly into space. This was
not a painless choice because the U.S.
Air Force axed funds to his researches.
Also Theodore Von Karman mocked
him with the name-calling of “space-
man”. Broglio was seen in America as
a traitor of the Aeronautical cause,
because he was considered the best
aeronautical structurist. Professor
Broglio’s generation was traumatized
by two World Wars, and many of them
have identified themselves as survivors
and dedicated themselves to creating
the structures for a different world.
Their vision was often illogically
optimistic and generous. Many of them
had the courage to change careers, to
re-educate themselves in new fields
and to work towards a better future.
Broglio’s first move as “space-man”
was the institution of a two-year
course on missile technology at the
and
University of Rome. At the same time
he tried to introduce a degree in
aerospace engineering: he convinced
the Italian Air Force to attempt this
new challenge and he tried to create
new co-operations. He talked them
about the economic benefits that space
activities might bring to society. Some
benefits take the form of public goods,
other of services. Some are delivered
through government space efforts,
of real
other result from profitable
commercialization of space activities
by the private industries.
History changed when in October 1957
the Soviet Union successfully launched
Sputnik I. While the Sputnik launch
was a single event, it marked the start
of the space age. Immediately after, the
U.S. Department of Defense responded
to the political furor by approving
funding for another U.S. satellite
project. Wernher von Braun and his
Army Redstone Arsenal team began
work on the Explorer project. Broglio’s
foresight turned out to be right. His
activities in the early 50s marked the
beginning and the earliest substantial
development of Italian space activities,
and would eventually bring Italy to be
the third country in the world, after the
Soviet Union and United States, to
send a satellite in orbit (San Marco A,
1964).
3. Broglio’s intuition: the equatorial
launch facility.
Broglio’s greatest insight was the need
for Italy to have its own launch site.
After many considerations,
equatorial platform seemed to be the
best choice because the Italian launch
site would have been the
equatorial one. This was
desirable for the following reasons.
First of all, when launching a satellite,
the lowest inclination of the orbit plane
achievable equals the latitude of the
launch site. This means that if the
launch occurs in the eastward direction
from a site that is located at 28° of
latitude (as is the case for Cape
Canaveral), the orbit plane will be
inclined at 28° with respect to the
equatorial plane. Thus, the only way to
launch directly into an equatorial orbit
is to have an equatorial launch site;
this also means that it’s the only site
from which all orbit inclinations can be
achieved directly. Secondly, for nearly
equatorial satellites, an access to the
station occurs every orbit; it’s likely
then that only one station is needed for
uplink and downlink.
Lastly, the weather meats launch
conditions for most part of the year.
The choice of using a sea-platform
instead of a terrestrial launch site was
driven mainly by the need to avoid
transporting the rocket by road as
much as possible. Otherwise, huge
funding would have been needed to
an
adapt the local road system to the
launch site needs. Three countries
were selected to host the Italian
first
platform: Somalia, Kenya and Brazil.
highly
Kenya was the final choice because of
the weather and the proximity to Italy.
4. The birth of the Italian Space
Centre.
The space centre is made of two
segments: the marine segment
represented by the launch oceanic
platform and the earth segment
represented by the data receipt centre.
The sea segment consist of two
platform: San Marco (named after the
patron saint of navigators) platform
was a former oilrig, located to the
north of Cape Ras Ngomeni on the
coastal sublittoral of Kenya, close to
the equator. It was a U.S. military asset
which NASA donated to Broglio. The
second platform, named the Santa Rita
(after the patron saint of things
impossible), was given at a very low
price from the then president of ENI
(the Italian Energy Department),
Enrico Mattei. She too was a former
oilrig, and was positioned southeast of
the San Marco.
Fig 2: The San Marco platform.
The San Marco acted as the actual
launch pad, while the launch control
room was located on the Santa Rita.
The Centre (Longitude: 40,19° E,
Latitude: 2,99° S) covers an area of
about 3,5 hectares on the coast of the
Indian Ocean 32 kilometers away from
Malindi and may be reached through
the littoral zone of Kenya. While the
soil is a property of the Republic of
Kenya, the management was entrusted
to CRPSM until December 31st, 2003
and to ASI starting from January 1st,
2004, in accordance with the
intergovernmental agreements between
Italy and Kenya currently in force. The
presence of the Centre within the
territory of Kenya, which dates back to
1966, is today ruled by an
intergovernmental fifteen-years
renewable agreement signed in 1995.
This agreement involves the possibility
to carry out launch activities, data
acquisition from satellites, remote
sensing and training activities both in
Kenya and in Italy. Italy defines the
programs, supplies the necessary
equipments, trains and takes on local
employees. Kenya grants the soil under
the payment of a rent by Italy, trains
and takes on local workers. The local
government must be informed about
activities taking place at the Centre and
asks, for commercial programs, a
royalty depending on the terms of the
commercial agreement. After 15 years
The Centre is linked to Italy through
equipments become a property of
Intelsat in the context of ASI-net
Kenya. The Earth Segment involves
(network of the Italian Space Agency).
many buildings made of masonry and
In 2001, after professor Broglio’s
wood used as accommodations and
death, the Italian Space Agency
services, a small seaport for docking
wanted to rename the launch site as
the ships serving as a link with the
Luigi Broglio Space Centre.
platforms as well as 3 Earth Stations
(antenna systems) for the in-orbit
5. San Marco Project: a fruitful
control and telemetry download from
cooperation with U.S.
satellites and launch vectors. The 3
stations are the following:
In 1959 the collaboration in the space
- S-Band station, equipped with a 10
field between the U.S. and Italy was
meters parabolic antenna used for the
renewed. NASA and Broglio’s team
agency programs
worked together in high altitudes
- S/X/L Band station, equipped with a
dynamics.
10 meters parabolic antenna used for
The objective of the experiment was to
the control of launch vehicles
perform the same measurements in
(Arianespace, Titan) and to give
Sardinia and in America and make a
support to the first phases of
comparison between the results. To
commercial satellites flight (LEOP);
this end a little launch site was also
- X-Band station equipped with a 6
realized in Sardinia, Perdas Is Furonis
meters parabolic antenna used to
to launch a liquid propelled rocket
receive remote sensing data (ERS2,
probe. The experiment was
Spot, Landsat).
successfully performed in 1961 and
this guaranteed better relationship with
NASA.
The “San Marco” Project conceived
and directed by professor Broglio was
born in 1962. The representatives of
the United States National Aeronautics
and Space Administration and the
Italian Space Commission of the
Fig 3: Luigi Broglio Space centre in Malindi.
Italian Research Council signed the
Memorandum of Understanding. Such
agreement regarded cooperation in a
scientific experiment which had the
objective to perform measurements of
atmospheric and ionospheric
characteristics and make the resulting
scientific data freely available to the
world scientific community. The
experiment consisted in launching into
a Low Earth Orbit two italian-built
satellites. The first (San Marco A) was
to be launched from NASA Wallop
Island launching facility, while the
launch of the second satellite (San
Marco B) had to take place from the
Italian complex in Kenia using a Scout
rocket provided by NASA. Launch
operations were conducted by a the equatorial day and night airglow
completely Italian team trained by
NASA technicians. San Marco A
successfully took off from Wallop on
December 16 1964. The satellite was
built as follows: an external spherical
shell which was connected by means
of a spring-light device to an internal
shell carrying all the hardware and
instruments. Therefore the satellite was
very sensitive to surface forces such as
aerodynamic drag. It provided in fact
for the first time very precise
measurements of the upper atmosphere
density. San Marco B be succefully
launched from the Malindi range on
April 26 1967. The last satellite in the
series, San Marco D/L, was placed in
an orbit that ranges in altitude from
about 118 to 279 miles, circling the
earth every 93 minutes. The roughly
spherical device carried five scientific
instruments: Italy's contribution is a
Neutral Atmosphere Density or "drag
balance" experiment, known as
“Broglio’s balance”, designed to
measure drag forces on the satellite.
From West Germany came an Airglow
Solar Spectrometer, a multipurpose
device to measure solar radiation
reflected from the earth's surface and
clouds; radiation of solar,
interplanetary and intergalactic origin
that reaches the satellite directly; and
(observable light that originates in the
high atmosphere and is associated with
photochemical reactions of gases).
Three U.S. instruments completed the
package: a wind and temperature
Spectrometer measured the
electromagnetically neutral winds and
neutral particle temperatures around
the satellite, as well as concentrations
of selected gases. Another device
monitored the electric fields through
which it passed. A third sensor
reported on bulk ion velocities and
ambient plasma concentrations, which
bear on such fundamental matters as
the nature of plasma turbulence and of with the U.S. thanks to the United
the coupling between ionized and Technology know-how. It would have
neutral-gas motions. been a solid propelled rocket, built by
The San Marco launch platform was in Fiat. In the end political reasons
use from March 1964 to March 1988, prevented Italy from having its own
with a total of 27 launches, primarily launch vehicle. This was only the first
sounding rockets including the Nike in a long series of opportunities that
Apache, Nike Tomahawk, Arcas and Italy lost. In 1961 a European
Black Brant launchers. Low payload agreement with the aim to build a
weight orbital launches were also European rocket was born: ELDO
made, using the solid-propellant Scout (European Launcher Development
rocket (in its B, D and G subvariants). Organization). This initiative
The first satellite specifically for X-ray represented a burden to the possibility
astronomy, Uhuru, was launched from to have an Italian rocket. This event
San Marco on a Scout B rocket on signed the beginning of the decay in
December 12 1970. In 1971 NASA the Italian aerospace researches.
awarded the San Marco team, after the In 1968 after the failure of the
SSS1 satellite launch, as best launch European project for the vector ELDO-
team of the year. PAS the story of the first Italian
communications satellite, SIRIO,
started. The story up to the launch in
1977 involved the encumbering legacy
of the San Marco satellite's success in
the 1960s, political uncertainty in Italy,
international economic crises of the
1970s, an overtly complex
management system, and an
inexperienced aerospace industry.
Fig 4: Scout launches the last San Marco
satellite. Despite these handicaps, SIRIO won
the race with its nearest competitor, the
6. Firsts signs of decay.
European satellite OTS, which had a
similar research aim in the super high
Since 1961 Broglio’s team could have
frequency band. In addition to
built an Italian rocket in cooperation
collecting a large amount of useful
data, SIRIO catalyzed the process for many of humanity’s pressing needs,
developing an improved organizational the financial and political realities
structure for Italian space research. today as well as in Broglio’s time
Unfortunately, in this period, European mean that there are other priorities
partnership was not fruitful. In competing for limited resources. The
particular the cooperation with France major challenge for the space
was not as good as the one with the community is to convince policy
U.S.. Americans gave experience, makers and industry leaders that the
facilities and rockets; Broglio’s team development and application of space
gave them ideas and designs to realize. technology warrants continued
Unfortunately after the Apollo investment. The national space
program everything changed: in a agencies play in support of national
paradoxical way the greatest event of commercial space industries and big
the twentieth century, the conquest of international partnership. This is not
the moon, represented the end of the wrong but support for non-commercial
space race. sector of space, such as space science,
The period between 1967 and 1970 by national agencies is often a less
was characterized by a complete lack contentious issue then the support
of fundings and by a meaningless provided to the commercial sector such
thwarting San Marco’s team plans as the satellite communications
between scientific engagement and industry. Nothing is worse than the
managerial inexperience. Space active ignorance of our politicians.
activities importance was poorly
understood by citizens and politicians 7. The Professor’s heritage.
alike. Still today space and space
technologies are not in their mind Broglio represents beyond a shadow of
when they make use of these services a doubt the father of Italian and
as final consumers forgetting that european astronautics, thanks to his
without the satellite network internationally recognized scientific
surrounding earth most of these charisma and to his foresight.
facilities will be not available. Broglio’s foresight and perseverance
Notwithstanding the ever increasing allowed Italy to be, in the early sixties,
potential of space technology to in the frontline of the aerospace
provide cost effective solutions to researches, following the U.S. and the
Soviet Union. During this time we had continuation of the San Marco Project.
a significant advance in space From the very beginning, the SMP,
technologies and astounding scientific and later CRPSM, developed and
discoveries. Experiences, both positive actively pursued fruitful and mutually
and negative, that have been rewarding co-operative programmes
encountered in Broglio’s professional mainly with NASA and, over time,
life should represent, today, lessons with several Italian and foreign
learned. organizations such as the European
Younger people will be responsible for Space Agency (ESA), Italian Air Force
developing and enhancing current (AMI), National Council of Research
space activities, education and (CNR), Italian Space Agency (ASI),
awareness; they can play a significant U.S. and European Universities
role as workforce of tomorrow, making (Dallas, Michigan, New Hampshire,
space appealing to younger students Max Planck Institute, etc.).
and pushing the boundaries of space Moreover following in our pioneer
exploration. Broglio’s professional life footsteps, UNISAT program was
should inspire vigor and energy in the established in late nineties at School of
new generation of space leaders who Aerospace Engineering in Rome. It is
dare to dream big and work powerfully an educational project with the aim to
to overcome their limits. involve students, researchers and
professors in designing, manufacturing
8. The School of Aerospace and operating in orbit small
Engineering in Rome. microsatellites. Most of the UNISAT
satellites components are based on
Professor Broglio’s heritage is still commercial off the shelf (COTS)
present in the School of Aerospace technology. This allows to keep
Engineering in Rome: everything, in program costs low and affordable for
our daily work talk about him. There the University. The main goal of the
are some professors who worked in UNISAT program is educational, with
San Marco’s team, others are still the aim of student participation in all
today part of the San Marco Project the phases of a real space program,
Research Centre (CRSPM), a research from the initial mission concept design
centre of the University of Rome "La to in-orbit operations. There is a strict
Sapienza", that represents the time constraint on the mission
development, which must fit in the two References
years didactical plan of the students. In
1
the framework of this project four Giorgio Di Bernardo Nicolai, “Nella
microsatellites have already been nebbia in attesa del sole”, Di Renzo
launched from the Baikonour Editore, 2005.
2
cosmodrome using the DNEPR launch Giorgio Di Bernardo Nicolai, “Vedo
vehicle. The program has now la terra azzurra”, Editalia, 1997.
3
achieved an experience of several Fabio Santoni, Fabrizio Piergentili,
years, in which the methods of hands- Fabio Bulgarelli, Filippo Graziani,
on education have been employed, “The Unisat program: lesson learned
along with traditional class teaching, to and achieved results”, IAC-06-
improve the students skills. All the E1.1.10, 57th International
Unisat program purposes reflect the Astronautical Congress, Valencia,
life philosophy of professor Broglio: Spain, October 2006.
4
economic saving, hands-on method http://gauss.diaa.uniroma1.it/
5
and international cooperation. Every http://it.wikipedia.org/
6
year Giorgio Di Bernardo Nicolai, a http://crpsm.psm.uniroma1.it/
7
scientific reporter involved in the http://w3.uniroma1.it/sdia//index.htm
astronautic field, holds a seminar about
astronautical history in which he
narrates with passion to new students
about professor Broglio and his deeds.
Di Bernardo also wrote a Broglio’s
biography and this enlightening book
is given to the students during the
graduation ceremony as good wish, to
never forget the pioneering spirit that
should guide us. Yesterday dreams are
a reality today. Today dreams might be
a reality tomorrow if we keep that
spirit alive.