Welcome to my  website

This website aims to show and explain my previous and current activities and to spread some knowledge about aerospace world. I hope the latter could help somebody in him/her activities related to this wonderful world. If you want, you can contact me at info@giuseppecorrao.net

  La versione italiana dei post di astrodinamica è visibilie qui 

Hot stuff

On 30 November, the LEOP team at the Fucino Space Centre completed the final braking manoeuvre on the fourth satellite of the COSMO-SkyMed constellation (SAR#4), which had been launched on 6 November from the Vanderberg base in California. The manoeuvre represented the completion of SAR#4’s shift into the same orbit as the other three satellites in the constellation, and saw it take up its final position at 90 degrees between SAR#1 and SAR#2. Positioning it there involved the execution of 16 acceleration manoeuvres, a shift of some 143.5 degrees in its orbit, and 16 braking manoeuvres. At the same time, the constellation comprising the first three satellites continued to operate normally, while the fourth was taking up its final working position and undergoing the testing envisaged by the mission profile. As of today, the new satellite, now in its nominal position, is a fully-integrated member of the COSMO-SkyMed constellation.

Posted on December 3, 2010

NASA released images taken from ISS. Here you can see Italy at night. Rome and Naples are clearly visible due the big concentration of lights. Great shot!
Italy as seen from ISS

Posted on November 17, 2010

Vandenberg launched a Delta II rocket carrying the Thales Alenia Space-Italia COSMO-SkyMed Satellite, Friday, Nov. 5, at 7:20 p.m. from Space Launch Complex-2 on North Vandenberg. This launch is the fourth and final for COSMO-SkyMed. "This was a critical launch for completing the COSMO-SkyMed constellation and Team Vandenberg performed brilliantly," said Col. Richard Boltz, 30th Space Wing commander. The overall objective of the COSMO-SkyMed program is global Earth observation, particularly in the Mediterranean area. Some applications include territorial surveillance; analyzing effects of natural disasters; coastal surveillance to assess erosion and sea/river pollution, monitoring of farming, forestry resources and urban buildings; mapping with a resolution on the order of one meter; and territorial security and strategic defense. The three other COSMO-SkyMed satellites were launched from Vandenberg in June 2007, December 2007 and October 2008.

Posted on November 8, 2010

In spite of some posts have been published in italian, this website has finally been translated in english! Despite of the long-term periods of time needed to convert all the content present in the previous version, I sincerely hope to enlarge the audience of visitors, especially when all the sections will be translated. Please don't take your breath ;-) ! My spare time is limited and I cannot go quickly as I would. So, thank you for your patience...

Posted on October 27, 2010

After more than 50 years of history, NASA finally makes available on internet a huge amount of photos, from space race to Shuttle missions. You can start the navigation from here. Enjoy!

Posted on October 23, 2010